The second Russia–Africa Summit was held at the
Expo Forum in St. Petersburg on 27 and 28 July 2023, following its postponement, having been originally scheduled for October 2022 at the African Union headquarters in
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.[1][2][3]
Attended by 49 delegations,[4] only 17 heads of state participated in the summit, with 43 previously attending in the
first summit in 2019.[5][6]
The summit was attended by
Yevgeny Prigozhin – leader of
Wagner Group at the time – in one of his first, and
final, public appearances in Russia since launching
an unsuccessful rebellion. His Wagner mercenaries have supported the interests of the Russian government in several African countries.[7][8]
Putin said that Russia has written off $23 billion of
African debt.[9]
Karin Kneissl, former Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria[55]
Countries that did not participate
According to several sources, a
Nigerien delegation was unable to attend due to an
ongoing coup d'état.[56][57][58]William Ruto, president of
Kenya, refused to attend the summit and opted for the African Union (AU) to represent Kenya instead, with a spokesperson saying that he wanted to convey the message to the AU "to carry the wishes of the country at the Summit". He however subsequently attended the Saudi-Africa summit in November 2023 later in the year and the Italy-Africa summit in February 2024 despite saying he wouldn't in leu of AU representation[59]
On 16 May 2023,
South African president
Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the leaders of African countries came up with a new initiative for peace in Ukraine.[61] In June 2023, a delegation from Africa, including representatives from
South Africa,
Egypt,
Senegal,
Congo-Brazzaville,
Comoros,
Zambia, and
Uganda, visited Ukraine and Russia to call for peace.[62] On 17 June 2023, Ramaphosa and other African leaders met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. Ramaphosa called on Putin to end the
Russian invasion of Ukraine,[63] but Putin rejected the delegation's peace plan based on accepting Ukraine's internationally recognized
borders.[64] According to South African professor William Gumede, of the
University of the Witwatersrand, the African peace initiative was treated with "disdain and disrespect" by Putin. Gumede said the visiting African leaders perceived that
Kyiv being bombed during their visit to Ukraine was "humiliating... and then in Russia, Putin didn't even bother to listen to the delegation, basically interrupting them before they'd even finished speaking, implying there was no point in discussing anything as the war would continue."[65]
During the Russian-African summit, president
Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo urged Putin that the Russian invasion of Ukraine must end and that the
African peace plan should not be underestimated.[66][67] Ramaphosa called for peace in Ukraine and expressed concern about
food security and rising
fertilizer prices.[68] Without specifically mentioning the Russian invasion of Ukraine or any other war, Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni said that the "only justified wars are the just wars, like the
anti-colonial wars. Wars of
hegemony will fail and waste time and opportunity. Dialogue is the correct way."[69]
Zimbabwean president
Emmerson Mnangagwa voiced support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that he and Putin "discussed the need for prosperity through peace as well as how our countries can work together to assure food security across the continent", adding that the "victims of sanctions must cooperate".[70][71] Malian military leader
Assimi Goïta and Central African president
Faustin-Archange Touadéra, whose countries are increasingly reliant on
Wagner Group mercenaries, also expressed support for Russia, with Touadéra saying that Russia "had helped to save its democracy and prevent a civil war", according to
Reuters.[72] Eritrean president
Isaias Afwerki openly denied the existence of the
Russo-Ukrainian War during a meeting with Putin.[73][74]
Putin offered to send "free supplies of 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes of grain" to six countries to make up for the withdrawal from the previous grain deal. The countries that were to receive free grain included allies of Russia:
Burkina Faso,
Central African Republic,
Eritrea,
Mali, and
Zimbabwe, as well as war torn
Somalia.[82]
During the sidelines of the summit, Putin held several bilateral meetings, including with Ethiopian prime minister
Abiy Ahmed, and Egyptian president
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, discussing trade, nuclear energy and other topics.[83][84][85]
Putin also talked to
Dilma Rousseff, former President of Brazil and concurrent chairperson of the BRICS New Development Bank.[86]
27 July
During a plenary session, Putin spoke under a theme of "Technology and Security in the Name of Sovereign Development for the Benefit of Humankind". The session was chaired by
Irina Abramova [
ru], the director of the Institute for African Studies of the
Russian Academy of Sciences.[87][88]
Before the plenary session, Putin met with Comorian president
Azali Assoumani, also serving as the concurrent Chairperson of the African Union, and
Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission.[89] He later met with presidents
Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique, and
Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi.[90][91]
Many agreements were signed with participating African countries on this date. Leaders from the Comoros, Cameroon, Uganda, Libya, and the Republic of the Congo, alongside African Union Commission chairperson
Moussa Faki, were among representatives giving remarks, with emphasized calls to Putin for an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[93][72] The summit concluded with a final declaration, as well as an official plan for implementing a Partnership Forum for 2023-2026 and a number of other documents.[94]
A bilateral meeting between Putin and Eritrean president
Isaias Afwerki was held after the end of the summit.[73]
A confirmed sighting of
Wagner Group leader
Yevgeny Prigozhin in the aftermath of the
failed mutiny emerged, showing him meeting with Freddy Mapouka, a presidential advisor in the Central African Republic, and the head of the Cameroonian version of pro-Russian media outlet Afrique Media, at the Trezzini Palace hotel in St. Petersburg during the 2023 Africa-Russia summit.[95]