Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s meeting with Commissioner of the African Union for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Bankole Adeoye

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Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s meeting with Commissioner of the African Union for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Bankole Adeoye.

On June 11, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov received Commissioner of the African Union for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Bankole Adeoye.

The two sides discussed prospects for expanding multifaceted cooperation between Russia and the African Union, with an emphasis on the forthcoming third Russia- Africa Summit in Moscow in October. They reaffirmed mutual commitment to coordinating efforts, including at the UN platform, on key global and regional issues, with the leading role of Africans themselves in determining ways to resolve crises in Africa. They emphasised the equal and mutually beneficial nature of the Russian-African partnership, based on the universally recognised principles and norms of the UN Charter.

Sergey Lavrov pointed to the Russian side’s readiness to provide assistance in achieving full sovereignty of the African continent in all its dimensions.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at a meeting with African Union Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security Bankole Adeoye.

Mr Commissioner, colleagues,

It is a pleasure to welcome you to Moscow.

I know you have a very full agenda. You have already held meetings with my colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defence, and the Central Election Commission. I hope those discussions prove fruitful.

Our relations with the African continent, with the African Union and with virtually all African countries, are progressing positively and steadily. They rest on a very solid and reliable foundation, built during the struggle against colonialism and the strengthening of independent states on your continent. Our country has made a significant contribution to both the process of decolonisation and the development of statehood in African countries. That foundation allows us to move forward and address the new challenges facing our African friends.

Today, we are witnessing a remarkable phenomenon: Africa’s “second awakening.” Having achieved political independence, and after decades of independent development, African countries now want to be masters of their own natural resources. Amid profound changes and upheavals on the global stage, we see a clear desire among Africans to make the fullest possible use of what nature and God have given them for the benefit of their people, rather than remaining raw material appendages of global corporations.

This means developing manufacturing and heavy industries, and doing everything possible to ensure that the added value from natural resources stays, as much as possible, in African countries. Our country has vast experience in helping to create national industry and agriculture in African nations. And now, I believe, is the right time to put that experience to practical and meaningful use in a new environment.

The Russia-Africa Partnership Forum is focused precisely on these matters. The third Russia-Africa Summit will be held in Moscow on October 28-29, 2026. We hope that most African leaders will be able to attend in person, along with the Chair of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.

In the meantime, we are expanding our diplomatic presence in Africa. In recent years, we have opened more than a dozen embassies. There are now 45 in total, with another four in the pipeline. We are always glad to work with African diplomats serving at our embassies here in Moscow. We have not forgotten the idea recently put forward by our African friends – to establish an African Union representative office in Moscow. We will be very happy to facilitate that step.

We have a broad agenda, and the tasks are even more ambitious. I hope that your visit and your intensive talks here in the Russian capital will help to outline concrete steps for addressing these challenges.

My colleagues have briefed me on your detailed discussions about ways to further strengthen the partnership between the Russian Federation and the African Union. I find these ideas thought-provoking and useful. We broadly share them. And we will now discuss them in specific terms.

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