Eurasia Review
Squeezed between European and American sanctions, Russia has stepped up efforts to elevate its existing relationship, mostly focusing on trade, investment and economic cooperation with several African countries, to include areas spanning the financial sector, energy, the mining industry, railway infrastructure, digital technologies, cybersecurity, healthcare, education, and food security.
The latest additional step taken in propelling partnership efforts was an open Economic Conference held within the Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2019) from June 20-21 in Moscow.
Afreximbank, the African Export-Import Bank, is a supranational financial institution bringing together 51 African countries. The bank aims to expand and incentivize trade between African countries and others outside the continent. Russia became one of the bank’s shareholders in 2017.
The Afreximbank annual meetings also included a seminar and meeting of the Afreximbank Advisory Group on Trade Finance and Export Development in Africa and special meetings between Russian and African political and business leaders to discuss trade, industrialization, export, and the implementation of joint investment projects.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev emphasized that Russia and African countries are bound by friendly relations and partnerships that have a solid historical foundation. But with all due respect for the past, it is much more important to look into the future, forward, to jointly make various plans and to implement them together, he added.
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