Moscow revives ties with African countries

Putin sees Sochi summit as a way to boost political and economic relations

Russia's first summit with African leaders in the southern resort city of Sochi this week gives Moscow the chance to cultivate neglected ties with the continent, experts said.

Russia wants to double trade with Africa over the next five years, President Vladimir Putin said at the opening of the summit on Wednesday.

Olga Kulkova, senior researcher from the Center for Studies of Russian-African Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the event should not be only seen as a tool for spreading Russia's soft power to the continent.

"The summit is largely aimed at expansion of political, economic, trade and investment cooperation with the African countries, while the work toward this goal has been carried out actively over recent years," she said, adding that trade between Russia and Africa increased from $17.4 billion in 2017to $20.4 billion in 2018.

Putin and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, current head of the African Union, jointly opened an economic forum attended by Russian and African officials and representatives of major businesses. Al-Sissi noted that Moscow has been actively working to develop international relations and assert its geopolitical status as a world power.

Kulkova said the cooperation with Egypt is important to Russia, as the projected Russian Industrial Zone in Egypt could be viewed as a successful case of Russian-African economic cooperation.

The aim of this industrial zone, which will cover 5.25 million square meters, is to become a platform for Russian companies to expand into Egypt, the rest of Africa and the Middle East.

"Russia and Africa need each other," said Denis Korkodinov from the Russian think tank Center for Strategic Analysis Political Expertise.

"On one hand, currently the African countries can be conceived as a free geopolitical niche, where Moscow is able to strengthen its position as much as possible.

"And on the other hand, for the African leaders, cooperation with Russia is also a unique opportunity to significantly increase their international status and to solve their problems.

"Moscow allows many African leaders to legitimize their own power and receive guarantees of international recognition. In turn, Africa is attractive for Russia because of the huge natural resources. This creates a basis for mutual interest between Russia and Africa," Korkodinov said.

Engin Ozer, director of the international think tank Voice of Africa, agreed with Korkodinov on the principal directions of the Russia-Africa cooperation: defense and arm supplies, oil and gas production, mining and infrastructure projects.

Russia's state-run Tass News Agency reported that leaders of all African countries who have met with Putin at the summit expressed the readiness to cooperate with Moscow in the development of nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

Russia's state-owned corporation for nuclear energy development, Rusatom, and some African countries have come close to concluding contracts, the head of the corporation Alexei Likhachyov said.

Li Yonghui, a senior researcher in Russian foreign policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Russia has adhered to comprehensive diplomatic strategy and expanded its diplomatic space since the conflict with Ukraine erupted in 2014, as it had been subsequently diplomatically isolated by Western countries.

"Russia advocates multi-polarization and multilateral cooperation. So, working with the Africa continent is important to realize its vision and to highlight its influence amid the changing and complicated global situation," Li said.

Tang Xiaoyang, a researcher in Africa studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said that Africa has a fast-growing population and many developing countries, which means they have great potential.

"In the past few years, Africa has seen increasing global influence and strong economic growth, which means it cannot be neglected," he said.