Russia signs cooperation agreements with 17 African nations

Russia has signed cooperation agreements with 17 African nations to strengthen trade and investment ties around food provision fighting terrorism and improving security and boosting agriculture among others the crumbling says it has also settled 90 percent of some Financial agreements and obligations Isabel nakira has more Russia says it's opening up new grained routes to ensure food reaches Africa on time so that grain trading is not dependent on the UK and U.S insurance companies who may be unable to ensure ships traversing the Black Sea now that Russia's withdrawn from the grain deal one of the options being considered is exporting directly to turkey with payments managed by Qatar Russia exited the Black Sea grain initiative earlier in the month saying neither eat nor Africa was benefiting the first shipment of 50 000 tons of grain will go to six African countries but the U.N Secretary General Antonio guterres hit back at Russia's offer saying a handful of donations to some countries won't correct the dramatic impact of the grain deals collapse while South Africa isn't one of the recipients its delegates are optimistic about what's been offered at the summit I've witnessed a contracts being signed for real I witnessed the Russian delegations most of them saying when can we start work Russia has also written of 23 billion US dollars of Africa's debts saying it's eager to grow business on the continent the Russian export Center will support domestic companies in the country to open up new investment opportunities in Africa well what's um which you want to to export as cruel but also refine for the East African Market then we have got the pipeline to the ocean for the crude oil in which we are involved with total the French company and some Chinese companies but Russian companies can also come in and invest in that East African crude pipeline Russia has also committed to supplying and upgrading military hardware in Africa and offered help fighting terrorism and mediating conflicts though some analysts say conflicts like those in Sudan can only be solved internally Moscow says it's concerned about the situation in Niger and is watching it keenly but on Friday Russian mercenary leader pregosin who was seen at the summit said he supported the coup and offered Wagner's services to the self-appointed new leader I don't think the summit has effective tools to participate in resolving students crisis most of the active initiatives now are related to the United States Russia can only take a neutral stance and call on the two warring factions to stop the war and in recent history it hasn't had a role in mediating to stop unarmed conflict Russia has offered to invest in nuclear energy in Africa too the first plant is still due to be constructed in Egypt where progress has told since Russia first signed a deal with Cairo in 2008. the foreign minister says threats by the West will not detide from doing business with Africa and warned against interfering in their discussions Isabel nakiria cgtn Saint Petersburg well let's dig a Little Deeper here pumlani majozi a South African analyst and Senior fellow at the African Liberty is joining us live via Zoom from Johannesburg thank you for joining us on the program what's your take on the outcomes of this Summit have the two sides of Russia and African leaders come out with what they expected well thank you so much for inviting me to the show I think this was a very very important Summit to take place and I do believe that there were some benefits out of it for Africa as well as for Russia itself as we all know that Russia right now is really being isolated um in in many parts of the world so um I strongly believe that what Africa needs is um a more investment more trade Partnerships more trade partners and I think from a trade from a long-term long-term plan to to bolster trade with Russia there was a good outcome from that and also as well the write-off uh of of the of the of the debt as well we can see that as a positive though even there as well I don't see that as a major solution to South Africa's social economic problems but it is a plus that that will be um Africa's debts will be written off by Russia so I would say that from a um from a um there were some positives from the Summits one thing I should emphasize though is that the free grade to the six countries um it may look uh as if it's a good thing at the end of the day this is more of Russia trying to to sort of buy or get and you know allies within the African continent it's not a long-term solution what is more important is to bolster trade between Russia and Africa and I think from that aspect there were some good um you know benefits both for for Russia and Africa as well action of what it was during the last such Summit do you think some African leaders might have missed out on an opportunity here to engage with Russia on important issues I would argue that yes they did miss that opportunity because I strongly believe that there has to be an engagement with Russia right there has been there has to be an engagement both from an economic perspective as well as from a geopolitical perspective as well as we all know that we all wanted the war between Russia and Ukraine to end and at this point it's destabilized to the world uh crisis as have skyrocketed it has destabilized markets um globally so um for that there are leaders who couldn't go there and make the case for for for for the Russia Ukraine war to to end and also to discuss trade related matters I think it it was a Miss from those leaders there has to be an engagement with Russia going forward not only specifically with the with this Russia Ukraine war but also to create a geological sort of a stable environment that will allow a good to trade stable trade as well as stable diplomatic relations as well over the long term

Channel: CGTN Africa

Views: 37,963

Keywords: Africa, News, CGTN Africa

Id: m4iNg0FHn5A

Length: 7min 17sec (437 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 29 2023