Africa is Russia's asymmetrical response to the collective West

On October 10, 2022, a conversation took place between the Director of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Irina Abramova and the Honorary President of the Ivoire-Russian Chamber of Commerce, and Industry Curie Usmanov, who is actively involved in the development of Russian-African relations. Here is what he said during the conversation:

Africa is Russia's asymmetrical response to the collective West

“Russia at the meeting of the Council of Heads of State - members of the SCO in Samarkand showed the collective West its strength in Asia, followed by Africa.

At a time when the countries of the collective West under the leadership of the United States are trying to weaken Russia, our state is clearly showing the whole world, at meetings of the UN, SCO, and BRICS, which system of the world order is the future.

This is the freedom of countries and peoples, their natural right to their path of development, to preserve their originality and uniqueness. In such a model of the world order, there can be no place for diktat, patterns imposed by someone, ideas of the exclusivity of individual countries or even some kind of blocs,” said President of Russia V.V. Putin, congratulating the Foreign Intelligence Service on the anniversary of 06/30/2022.

Africa is a region with a population of 1.37 billion, comparable in population to China (1.44 billion) and India (1.38 billion). Africa is a large and very promising market. But it is not prestigious. But on the other hand, he is not so pretentious about the quality of products and the environmental requirements of the production process.

This continent was only in the last century freed from the colonialists from Europe, i.e. quite recently in historical terms, and today it has the greatest potential for economic growth and consumption. This did not pass by the largest economies of the world, and, as a result, not only Western European countries, the USA and China, but also India, Turkey, as well as the states of the Persian Gulf, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Israel and Brazil.

Russia today is far from the first place in the list of African countries' trading partners, and its trade is mainly focused on Egypt (37.2% of the total trade with Africa), Algeria (20.2%), Morocco (7.6%), South Africa (6.6%), Senegal (4.3%), Tunisia (3.9%), Nigeria (2.5%), Togo (2.4%), Sudan (1.6%) and Côte d'Ivoire (1.6%).

Today, the key Russian export product in the African direction is wheat and meslin (a mixture of soft wheat and rye for baking gray bread). Prominent export items are oil and oil products, fertilizers, as well as rolled metal and metal products. The main import items from Africa to Russia are various kinds of agricultural products, mainly, by Russian standards, exotic, and mineral raw materials. In Africa, the cost of resource extraction is an order of magnitude lower than in Russia, and the degree of complementarity of mineral resources is quite high. For example, Russia is experiencing a deficit in the production of manganese (100%), chromium (80%), cobalt, etc., while Africa produces bauxite - 7 times, chromium - 15 times, tin - 20 times, tantalum - 30 times, manganese is 600 times more than Russia.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, today Russia is ready to act as a partner for all African countries in several areas. Among them are projects for the supply of the latest Russian equipment for metallurgical and mining enterprises, the development of a transport and logistics system, including not only the supply of rolling stock for railways, aircraft, and helicopters of various classes and purposes, but also control and security systems for the corresponding modes of transport. In addition, Russia is interested in participating in the creation of energy infrastructure in the countries of the African region: oil and gas and generating capacities, including hydro and nuclear energy, ensuring food security, as well as developing the healthcare system and drug supply.

"Russia offers not single export deals, but projects that include both the supply of products and their maintenance, training of specialists, as well as the possible transfer of technologies and partial localization. This allows African countries to increase their competencies in various industries," the source said. Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.

According to the Russian Export Centre, promising areas and niches for Russian exporters in Africa are the supply of finished automotive equipment and vehicle kits, the construction and modernization of railway infrastructure, as well as the supply of equipment for flour milling and oil refining.

At the same time, domestic suppliers of agricultural machinery and large auto manufacturers are already working in African markets.

Projects for the maintenance and modernization of power plants, oil production and transportation of oil, and for the development of facilities for the chemical and mining industries in Africa are being implemented quite successfully. A large role in exports falls on the supply of agricultural products and food products. Projects are actively developing in new areas, such as modern technologies, smart cities, education, and healthcare.

The most important factor in the successful development of political and trade relations between Russia and African countries will be the position of Russia as a member of several integration associations concerning building equal trade relations, supported by the political weight of Russia and its partners united in the SCO and BRICS economic unions.

But for a significant expansion of trade, the prerequisites for possible cooperation are not enough, which is shown by Russia's low trade turnover with African countries. In this case, an asymmetric move by Russia could be an integrated approach implemented through the creation of a safe, from the point of view of the impact of unfriendly countries, trade route, which could be called the "African Sea Route", and through the port of Murmansk to connect the trade flows of this route with the Northern by sea (NSR).

This step will make it possible to connect Africa with Russia and Asian markets, first of all, with China, by an independent and safest sea route, to load the NSR to the limits established by President V.V. Putin turns and create a real mechanism for the development of the potential of bilateral trade described above. And in the case of the use of a nuclear merchant fleet on the NSR, to dramatically increase the efficiency of the use of the navy, which will give Russia advantages in the development of integration processes in the Eurasian space.

Thus, Russia faces the choice of a historical path, as it was in the critical times of the last century. This choice will take the relationship between Africa and Russia to a new level, and Russia itself will be able to offer the countries of Asia and Africa a secure trade route with huge development potential that will not be controlled by any country except Russia.”

Honorary President of the Ivoire-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Curie Usmanov