The 2nd Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Summit opened in St. Petersburg on Thursday with Russia seeking to diversify its cooperation in terms of long-term development with Nigeria, Africa.
The event taking place at Expoforum was declared open by the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
With many African leaders in attendance, the forum is featuring 30 panel sessions and thematic events on the most important issues to promote cooperation between Russia and African countries.
According to the Roscongress Foundation, organisers of the event, it aims at bringing about a fundamentally new level of mutually beneficial partnership to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
“The goal of the event is to promote efforts to strengthen comprehensive and equal cooperation between Russia and African nations across all areas of society including politics, security, economic relations, science and technology, and the cultural and humanitarian spheres.
“The forum, which is being held as part of the Second Russia–Africa Summit, is a unique event in Russian-African relations.
“The event is set to diversify the scope and nature of Russian-African cooperation, in turn setting the course of its long-term development.
“Public discussions taking place as part of the event will deal with the most pressing issues on the Russian-African agenda.
“This is taking into account the full extent of cooperation between Russia and the African nations, which extends beyond economic activity, a decision was taken to expand the 2023 edition of the Forum with a significant humanitarian element,’’ the foundation said.
Nigeria is being represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The event will also feature a large-scale exhibition and a platform for business meetings.
It would be recalled that the first Russia-Africa Summit was held in the resort city of Sochi in October 2019, with the theme: “Peace, Security and Development”.
The first summit was co-chaired by President Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who was the then Chairperson of the African Union (AU).
