Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, told the BRICS summit participants in South Africa on Thursday that Moscow intends to deepen ties with African countries for food and fuel supply.
Speaking in a video link address, Mr Putin said Russia was interested in developing “multi-faceted ties” with Africa, which has been roiled by fuel and food price rises resulting from the conflict in Ukraine.
This is coming after the country exited the Black Sea grain deal in July. This move has seen grain prices soar, hitting many African countries very hard. Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s biggest grain exporters.
In his remarks, Mr Putin also said Russia had more than 30 energy projects in African countries, adding that Russian fuel supplies would help African governments to contain price rises.
“Over the past two years, exports to Africa of Russian crude oil, petroleum products and liquefied natural gas have increased by 2.6 times,” he said.
Mr Putin added that the global transition to a greener, low-carbon emissions economy would have to be “gradual, balanced, carefully calibrated”, given projections for further growth in the world’s population and energy demand.
Russia is keen to build up the BRICS group – which currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – into a more influential bloc able to challenge Western domination of the global economy.
According to the BRICS leaders, they have also agreed to invite six more countries – Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – to join the bloc.
In his remarks on Thursday, Mr Putin took aim at former colonial Western powers and their espousal of what he called “neo-liberalism”, which he said posed a threat to both traditional values in developing countries and to the emergence of a multi-polar world where no one country or bloc dominated.
