Sochi (Russia) (AFP)
Vladimir Putin opens on Wednesday the "Russia-Africa Summit", the first of its kind and symbol of Moscow's growing ambitions in a region where Chinese and Westerners are several steps ahead.
In front of dozens of African heads of state and government, the Russian president will open the summit at 0800 GMT in the seaside resort of Sochi with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, who chairs the African Union.
On the agenda of the summit, replica of the "Sino-African cooperation forums" that have enabled Beijing to become the first partner of the continent, two days of discussions on topics ranging from "nuclear technologies to the development of Africa" to "African minerals for the benefit of the peoples of Africa".
Like its Chinese counterpart, the meeting is meant to be organized every three years. For this first, Moscow has put the dishes in the big.
"Forty-three countries will be represented by their leaders, and eleven by vice-presidents, heads of diplomacy or ambassadors," Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov told reporters. The 54 African states.
Heavyweights will be there, from South African Cyril Ramaphosa to Nigerian Muhammadu Buhari, as well as historical partners such as Angolan Joao Lourenço or more recent as Central African Faustin-Archange Touadéra.
Countries where Russia is virtually absent will also be represented, like Côte d'Ivoire with its president Alassane Ouattara, who will have in mind the possible conclusion of a military cooperation agreement.
- No political interference -
For the Russian president, who has scheduled 13 bilateral meetings, the forum will be an opportunity to demonstrate that he has African interests at heart, he who in 20 years has moved only three times in sub-Saharan Africa, still in Africa from South.
"We are preparing and carrying out investment projects with Russian participations that are in the billions of dollars," he said in an interview released Monday by the agency Tass.
For Moscow, after five years of Western economic sanctions, has a crucial need for partners and opportunities to stave off its sluggish growth.
In a context of exacerbated tensions with Western countries, the Sochi summit will also be an opportunity for Russia, after its great return to the Middle East thanks to its Syrian success, to show that it is a power of global influence.
Still, the time when Soviet influence was exercised everywhere on the continent is distant. At the time, Moscow had carved out a place for itself by its support for the struggles for decolonization, but the fall of the USSR caused a spectacular ebb.
In 2018, the trade between Russia and Africa amounted to 20 billion dollars, less than half of those of France and ten times less than China. And most of the trade is in arms, a rare area in which Russia remains in the lead.
To return the trend, Vladimir Putin boasts a cooperation without "political or other" interference, at a time when some African actors, worried about their financial dependence, begin to feel a form of weariness in the face of China.
"It is natural and natural that Russia wants to deepen its relations with Africa, in the same way as China, Japan, the United States and the EU countries," AFP told AFP a few weeks ago. before the summit the Cape Verde Foreign Minister, Luis Filipe Tavares.
But Moscow still has some way to compete with China or the West. "Russia is not the Soviet Union, it lacks the resources, the ideology and the appeal of its predecessor," said Paul Stronski of the Carnegie Center in Moscow.
© 2019 AFP