Second Russia-Africa Summit to Work Out Solutions for Boosting Economic Cooperation, Lavrov Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The second Russia-Africa summit, scheduled for 2023, will have its focus on developing ways to expand the country-to-continent economic cooperation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"Cooperation with the states of the African continent, which was boosted by the first Russia-Africa summit, has withstood the test of the pandemic and continues to develop steadily. Now we are preparing for the second summit, where we plan to work out consolidated solutions for the sake of stepping up trade, economic and investment cooperation," Lavrov said at a foreign ministry-hosted council of heads of Russia's federal regions.

The top diplomat expressed his hope that Russia's regions would actively participate in this work.

The first Russia-Africa Summit took place in the Russian resort city of Sochi in October 2019 and was co-hosted by Egypt.

Participants outlined priority areas for economic cooperation with measurable goals for coming years in areas such as security, trade, cooperation within international platforms, science, technology and culture.