August 1, 2023 Meeting of the Honorary President of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Vasiliev and Advisor to the Chinese Embassy Su Lei

On August 1, 2023, the Honorary President of the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician Alexey Vasiliev met with representatives of the Chinese Embassy, Advisor Su Lei, to discuss the political and economic situation in Africa and Russian-African relations in connection with the Second Economic and Humanitarian Forum Russia – Africa.

Alexey Vasiliev spoke about the success of the Summit for Russian foreign policy, as evidenced by the Declaration and other documents adopted at it. He emphasized that the number of African leaders present was relatively high, taking into account the sanctions: out of 54 countries, 49 were present, and there were 17 presidents and 4 prime ministers. In addition, Alexey Vasiliev pointed out that the Declaration adopted following the Summit fully meets the interests of China.

Answering Su Lei's question about which countries might change their position, Alexey Mikhailovich expressed support for the view that Africans in general condemn the neocolonial policies of the West. Their position may contribute to further rapprochement between Russia and African states.

Alexey Vasiliev spoke about two global trends that will further increase the role of Africa: 1) from the end of the 20th century. the non-Western world is developing faster than the Western world, including Africa, although with some delay; 2) in 30-40 years the number of people in the world will stop growing, but by this time every 3-4 inhabitants of the Earth will be African, given the rapid demographic growth on the continent.

Speaking on the topic of the possible expansion of the SCO and BRICS, Alexey Vasiliev suggested that Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, and Ethiopia are interested in joining BRICS.

Talking about the prospects of Russian policy in Africa, Alexey Vasiliev pointed out that the most promising areas are security, space technology, cooperation in the production of fertilizers, medicine, personnel training, and energy. As for the problems, he pointed out the need to create a unified public-private structure to help Russian businesses cooperate with Africa.