South Africa is hoping to continue working closely with the Russia-Africa Forum Secretariat to implement the agreements reached at the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit, which was held in Sochi in October 2019, despite the disruption to planned bilateral meetings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Madivha Aaron Mudimeli, charge d'affaires at the South African Embassy in Moscow, told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2020) South Africa is hoping to continue working closely with the Russia-Africa Forum Secretariat to implement the agreements reached at the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit, which was held in Sochi in October 2019, despite the disruption to planned bilateral meetings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Madivha Aaron Mudimeli, charge d'affaires at the South African Embassy in Moscow, told Sputnik.
"The [Russian] Foreign Ministry has established the secretariat that deals with all issues pertaining to the decisions of Sochi [2019 Russia-Africa Summit]. Because of the coronavirus, we don't know what will happen. But we hope to work closely with the secretariat to implement the decisions of Sochi," Mudimeli said.
The embassy official expressed his hope that progress will be made in 2021 toward implementing the Sochi agreements.
"Hopefully, countries will be dealing with Russia individually; collectively it will be through the African Union, which we currently chair. We are doing everything during teleconferences, but we hope that by next year maybe there will be something tangible that will happen," Mudimeli remarked.
In late August, South African Defense Attache at the Embassy in Moscow, Brig. Gen. M Masinda, told Sputnik that any African country would be proud to host the next Russia-Africa Summit, which is scheduled to take place in 2022.
The Russia-Africa Partnership Forum was established at the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi last year. Deputy Director of the Department of Africa at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Oleg Ozerov, was appointed as the head of the forum's secretariat.
