Roscongress Foundation CEO Alexander Stuglev and Integration Expertise LLC (Intex) General Director Nikolay Stolyarov signed an agreement on cooperation between their organizations on March,11. The document envisages joint work for the creation and promotion of the ‘Russia—Africa: Shared Vision 2030’ project and the organization of scientific advisory and expert collaboration.
The ‘Russia—Africa: Shared Vision 2030’ expert report on Russia-Africa relations will be presented to the public in 2019. The main themes of the analysis include macroeconomic reviews, an analysis of the political and economic systems of African countries, and a risk assessment.
During the signing, Yevgeny Korendyasov, the editor-in-chief of the ‘Russia—Africa: Shared Vision 2030’ report and a senior researcher at the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that intensifying Russian-African cooperation is now among the list of current priorities of the Russian government and business.
“Preparations for the Russia-Africa Summit as a new platform for the Russian-African partnership are in full swing. In this situation, ensuring that relations between countries reach a new level requires a rethinking of approaches, mechanisms, and instruments for cooperation based on their heightened significance in the new conditions of world politics and economics”, he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward the Russia—Africa initiative at the BRICS summit (Russia, Brazil, India, China, and South Africa) in Johannesburg in July 2018. Joint events are held on a regular basis at major forums: the Russia—Africa Business Dialogue has been held as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum since 2017, and the first Russia—Africa Energy Roundtable was organized as part of Russian Energy Week in 2018. Shareholders in the African Export—Import Bank will hold their annual meeting in Moscow in June 2019.