October 24-26, 2022 Participation of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the events of the Second International Youth Forum "Russia - Africa: what's next?"

Faculty of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences actively participated in the Second International Youth Forum "Russia - Africa: what's next?", which was held at the MGIMO MFA of Russia on October 24-26, 2022.

During the plenary session, a video message from the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov was presented, as well as the Director of the Africa Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Vsevolod Tkachenko, Ambassador-at-Large, and Head of the Secretariat of Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Oleg Ozerov, the Chairman of AFROCOM Igor Morozov, Director of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Irina Abramova, Director of the Department for the Development of Bilateral Cooperation of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia Pavel Kalmychek, Minister of the Government of Moscow Sergey Cheryomin, Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Alexander Tolparov, Director for Development of the Foreign Network of the Russian Export Centre Dmitry Prokhorenko, African politician and the president of NCO “Urgent Problems of Pan-Africanism” Kemi Seba, the rector of MGIMO academic Anatoly Torkunov, Deputy Rector for Youth Policy, Social Work, and International Relations of MGIMO Sergey Surovtsev.

During the event, experts touched upon the place of Africa in world politics, the prospects for Russian-African cooperation, the current state of joint projects, as well as potential strategies for developing partnerships. In her speech, the Director of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Irina Abramova noted the growing attention to Africa in Russia and urged everyone to continue further work in this direction.

The plenary session was followed by the presentation of an expert report by the Institute for International Studies (IIS) MGIMO "Politics and Security in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities for Russia". The event was attended by the Director of IIS Maxim Suchkov, researchers of the Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies of MGIMO Ivan Loshkarev, Maya Nikolskaya, and Lora Chkonia, faculty of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and forum participants. The presented report was commented on by Ph.D in Economics, Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for South African Studies, Vasily Sidorov, and Junior Research Fellows of the Centre for Global and Strategic Research of the Institute for African Studies of the RAS Andrey Barinov, Gleb Sugakov, Polina Kulakova, and Andrey Berezhnov.

Many of the ideas expressed on the sidelines of the event were included in the resolution, which consists of a roadmap and proposals to the participants of the second summit and the Russia-Africa Economic Forum. It is assumed that the roadmap will be implemented in the period after the Second International Youth Forum "Russia - Africa: what's next?".