The ongoing Russian-African summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum have been a platform for some significant announcements. Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the forum on Thursday, stated about Russia-Africa trade reached a staggering $18 billion in 2022, an upswing spurred by the inaugural Russia–Africa Summit held in Sochi in 2019.
Speaking on Thursday, Putin underscored Russia’s passionate drive to amplify its multifaceted commercial, investment, and humanitarian connections with Africa. Such augmentations, he posited, cater to the collective aspirations of all participating nations, thus promoting an ecosystem of sustainable prosperity and consistent growth.
Early signs of such growth are already manifesting. Putin declared that export-import transactions with African nations experienced an upswing of over one-third in just the initial half of 2023. He highlighted that over 50% of Russia’s exports to Africa comprised machinery, equipment, chemicals, and crucially, food.
With food security integral to Africa’s socio-economic fabric and political equilibrium, Putin committed to continuous attention to the export of grains such as wheat, barley, and corn under the UN World Food Programme’s purview.
Putin outlined the impressive growth trajectory in agricultural trade, witnessing a 10% surge to $6.7 billion. This sphere demonstrated a record increase of 60% between January and June 2023. As a testament to Russia’s commitment, 11.5 million metric tonnes of grain found its way to Africa in 2022, while nearly 10 million metric tonnes made the journey in the first half of 2023 alone.
Amid these positive notes, Putin voiced his condemnation of the West’s ‘illegal sanctions’ on Russian exports, which he argued pose serious impediments to food export, disrupting logistics, transportation, insurance, and banking transactions. He admonished the West’s contradictory stance of stymieing Russian exports while blaming Russia for a global food crisis.
Despite intentions to contribute to global food security and deliver humanitarian aid, Russia faces roadblocks. Putin disclosed that European nations had blocked almost 262,000 tonnes of Russian fertilizer shipments, designated for Malawi and Kenya under a humanitarian initiative.
Bucking these challenges, Putin reaffirmed Russia’s pledge to stand by nations in need, remaining proactive in crafting a fairer system for resource distribution to stave off a potential global food crisis.
The summit, themed ‘Technology, and Security in the Name of Sovereign Development for the Benefit of Humankind’, draws its curtain today.
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