Russia and Africa agree to promote multipolarism, fight neocolonialism

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow and African leaders attending a summit in St Petersburg have agreed to promote a multipolar world and fight neocolonialism in Africa.

“Russia’s attention to Africa is steadily growing,” Putin said on Friday at the end of the two-day summit.

Some 50 African delegations and 17 heads of state took part in the summit and economic forum.

Participants signed a joint declaration that called for “the establishment of a more just, balanced and stable multipolar world order, firmly opposing all types of international confrontation in the African continent”.

Putin has billed the summit as a major event that would help bolster ties with a continent of 1.3 billion people that is increasingly assertive on the global stage.

“Today, Africa is asserting itself more and more confidently as one of the poles of the emerging multipolar world,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin. “The forum will provide a further boost to our political and humanitarian partnership for many years to come.”

With the war in Ukraine ongoing, Moscow is also seeking more allies from the region.

On Thursday, the Russian leader promised free grain to six African nations and assured them that Moscow was trying to avert a global food crisis nearly a week after withdrawing from an agreement that allowed Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain producers, to export its farm products across the Black Sea.

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