By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

At the Valdai Discussion Club’s meeting held on 7th November 2024, President Vladimir Putin at the plenary session continued to build indepth discussions on Russian and African bilateral relations, Russia’s passion to support Africa’s attainment of economic sovereignty. It was explicitly noted, and this noticeably reflected in the declarations adopted after the first and second Russia-Africa summits, that Africa needs to liberate itself from the trapings of neo-colonialism of the United States and Europe.

That was not the first time. Valdai’s experts have been interested in Russia’s policy in Africa, particularly in this contemporary era of evolving multipolar architecture and new world political order. Africa is an integral part of the focus in the Global South. Russia has already held two symbolic summits and outlined certain economic directions for Africa. In practical terms, Russia with its previous experience with Africa during the Soviet times, now has the potential to assert as an investment leader in Africa. African leaders have unreservedly expressed their preparedness for mutual economic cooperation and in other fields, voiced their support for building a new world order through the association BRICS+ (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

Given the proven fact that Russia certainly has both the financial and technological capability for investing in public infrastructure, in addition to providing necessary security in conflicting regions in Africa. Conflicts in Africa are partially as a result of under-development, and persistent weak economic development and rising levels of unemployment in the society. It is abundantly clear that with its multivectoral foreign policy, Russia has presented itself as a reliable partner, and currently is leading African countries to confront western hegemony, political exceptionalism and dominating power. It has offered guarantees of being in position to support Africa to attain its economic sovereignty but, for now, largely remained as a virtual investor. Russia’s economic presence in Africa is still comparatively weak, even after the symbolic summits held in Sochi and St. Petersburg.

Notwithstanding, African leaders consider efforts at reforming international institutions and Africa’s incorporation into their structures would facilitate the process of attaining a better economic status, enable the expected transitions from the current trends of neo-colonialism and further move away from blames of state management inefficiency, development unsustainability and frustration of democracy. Across the continent, leaders and the elites have shown their inability to mitigate crises and to mobilise sufficient resources, including financing and human for promoting their sustainable development goals.

Undeniably, the Valdai Club represents a critical area of research for humanity, experts dive into useful details or debate the causes of ongoing developments now around the world. In his contribution at Valdai, an Indian expert Rasigan Maharajh, rightly explained that “common security can only be enhanced by actively reducing these inequalities in world systems, actively promoting knowledge sharing, and ensuring equitable opportunities for the development of all and sundry.” And the global majority seems to obviously prefer multipolarity.

As relations are developing, moving ahead with concrete policy decisions should be an ideal direction. Quite often, there has been a lot of positive momentum in developing remarkable cooperation, several bilateral agreements have been signed and yet little noticeable results. Russians get irritated by the statement indicating little impact after series of business meetings, conferences and summits.

At the Valdai meeting, Professor Irina Abramova, Director of the Africa Studies Institute had the opportunity to ask Vladimir Putin a few questions relating to Africa. Specifically she wanted to know Putin’s views over the impact of Russia’s relations with Africa based on the fact that Putin has repeated his popular phrases, at the Kazan’s BRICS press conference that Africa, together with Southeast Asia, are new centers of global growth. Today, at Valdai meeting, Putin repeated this same idea.

Professor Abramova, in addition, stressed the fact that in the conditions of fierce competition – China, India, and old global players, and even Turkey, the (Persian) Gulf countries, and Iran are working seriously in the continent, – Russia needs to find its niche, where it would be the best for Africans. But, dozens of negotiations with African leaders have been held these several years, with some more than once. Was there any one promising direction in these negotiations that all African leaders would talk about?

As expected, Putin reiterated all those popular Soviet-style rhetoric, ultimately reflecting the historical support for Africa to attain political independence from colonial rule, western exploitation and for sovereignty, for the creation of some basic conditions for economic development. Officials have indicated that colonial trends in the African political system and economic spheres constitute impediments for Russia to effectively invest in Africa.

Without mincing words, Putin stressed further at the Valdai meeting: “these neo-colonial instruments have been preserved in the economy by Western countries, but also in the field of security. In general, we will work intensely, responsibly, systematically in all directions.”

The first Russia-Africa ministerial conference was also held, on 9–10 November 2024, in southern coastal city of Sochi as per the decisions reached at the Second Russia–Africa Summit. The business programme included around 20 panel sessions and thematic events focusing on perspectives for Russia–Africa cooperation in the areas of security, economics, and humanitarian engagement. It aimed at building on the outcomes of the Second Russia–Africa Summit, bringing together more than 40 foreign ministers from Russia and Africa, the African Union Commission, and executive bodies of regional integration organizations. In attendance were approximately 1,500 representatives from financial institutions, Russian and African businesses, civil society, academia, and the media.

There was, as always, those similar themes for dialogue between Russia and Africa. “Cooperation with the countries of the African continent is now one of the common priorities, noting that there are existing wide prospects for cooperation as demonstrated by the large numbers of African partners to the conference,” stated Anton Kobyakov, Adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, Executive Secretary of the Organizing Committee for Russia–Africa at Roscongress Foundation.

Available on the Kremlin website, Vladimir Putin greetings to the first ministerial conference participants read: “African countries enjoy a growing prestige on the international stage. By pursuing a constructive and peace-loving foreign policy, they are playing an increasingly important role in addressing major international matters. For its part, Russia attaches particular importance to strengthening relations with its African partners. We are united by our aspiration to building a just multipolar world order based on genuine equality and the rule of law and any form of discrimination.”

In absolute terms, Russia showed preparedness to facilitate the implementation of large infrastructure projects, without publicly mentioning financial allocation. It further pointed to issues of promoting the development of trade and economic relations between Russia and Africa, while emphasizing on the possibility of creating favourable environment and conditions.

There is absolutely no need to repeat multi-dimensional contents from speeches of President Vladimir Putin and that of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov here. But an insight into all the previous official statements, there have already been layout steps for concrete areas of cooperation. What remains are valuable and thorough examination of Russia’s potential focused directions in Africa policy. Many have indicated that Russian and African leaders really have to take off existing barriers for promoting economic development, and this could have positive implications for African countries, and particularly for Russia as one of the leaders of the emerging multipolar world.

Aside setting priorities, Russian and African leaders working-style of state-to-state and government-to-government format, both have to broaden joint parameters to include the private sector operatives, the civil society, entrepreneurial diaspora, youth and women, to pave pathways for broader relationship between Russia and African countries. The questions arising from the historic first ministerial conference provided an additional strong basis, and one more step forward, especially coordinating the implementation of joint projects involving potential Russian operators in the spheres of trade, economic and investment partnership, and embrace new mechanisms and on suitable ways to bolster multifaceted relations between Russia and Africa.