Moscow hopes that the second edition of the Russia-Africa Summit will take place in one of the African countries next year, as it was previously agreed in the Russian city of Sochi that hosted the 2019 forum, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th May, 2021) Moscow hopes that the second edition of the Russia-Africa Summit will take place in one of the African countries next year, as it was previously agreed in the Russian city of Sochi that hosted the 2019 forum, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
"We expect that the second Russia-Africa summit, as agreed in Sochi, will take place on the [African] continent in 2022. We expect that the President of Sierra Leone, Mr. Julius Maada Bio, will also be able to attend the second summit, as he did at the Sochi summit," Lavrov said at a joint press conference after the meeting with Sierra Leone's foreign minister, David J. Francis.
Sochi hosted first Russia-Africa economic forum and leaders' summit in October 2019. The event gathered the top leadership of African countries, regional integration associations, representatives of Russian and international business and government agencies, marking the beginning of a new era in the history of Russian-African relations.
On March 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that preparations for the second summit were in the works in his address to the international inter-party conference Russia-Africa: Reviving Traditions. Putin said that the inaugural summit gave a significant boost to Russia-Africa relations.
