World’s largest country Russia has been on an offensive to seek closer ties with Africa. It is no secret that its presence on the continent is fast growing.
Apart from expanding economic engagement with Africa, the superpower continues to align itself by offering educational and training opportunities that have benefitted thousands of Africans.
With a rich history of cooperation in education, Russia currently ranks 6th in the number of foreign students, with 35,000 of them coming from African countries.
Moscow is home to the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, which recently reclaimed the name of the great fighter for the independence of Africa Patrice Lumumba.
The Ministry of Education and Science of Russia has further announced a doubling of the number of budget places in Russian universities for students from African countries as part of expanding humanitarian cooperation.
Next year their number will be up to 4.7 thousand places. Other programmes that are currently developed include the opening of Russian educational centers in Africa and the training of national teachers to staff African secondary schools.
Russia has also expanded its footprints to Kenya. From September Kiswahili will be taught in Russian schools.
In May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was hosted by President William Ruto. The two leaders pledged to deepen relations to increase trade volumes.
Lavrov praised the 60 years of friendship between his country and Kenya, saying Russia’s relationship with the continent has a new momentum after the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit.
Lavrov was in Nairobi on his way to a meeting of the BRICs Ministers of Foreign and International Relations in Cape Town, South Africa.
The diplomatic strategy by Russia has been effective. In February African Union member states did not vote on a UN general assembly resolution that called for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.
Russia-Africa summit
Meanwhile, the Russia-Africa summit the second in a series will be held next month.
Cultural exchange and humanitarian cooperation between Russia and Africa will be one of the main themes of the forthcoming Second Russia-Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum, which will be held from 26 to 29 July in St. Petersburg.
The summit is the key and largest-scale event in Russian-African relations. It will identify new vectors for expanding cooperation between Russia and Africa in all spheres: politics, security, economy, science and technology, cultural and humanitarian spheres.
The event is aimed at bringing about a fundamentally new level of mutually beneficial partnership to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
The Summit also coincides with the anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity.
