III Russian-African Conference of the Valdai International Discussion Club
On 28 July 2025, the Third Russian-African Conference was held in Pretoria (South Africa) on the topic: ‘Realpolitik in a Divided World: Rethinking Relations between Russia and South Africa in the Global and African Context,’ organised by the Valdai Discussion Club in partnership with the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). More than 60 experts from Egypt, Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire, Russia, Tanzania and South Africa took part in the conference, including staff from the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Traditionally, the Valdai Club prepares a special Valdai Report ahead of the conference. This time, it was authored by D.A. Zelenova, Ph.D in Political Sciences, Head of the Centre for African Strategy in BRICS Institute for African Studies Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Sanusha Naidu, Research Fellow at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Global Dialogue, affiliated with the University of South Africa (UNISA). The theme of the 2025 report is ‘Russia and South Africa: A Solid Foundation for Strategic Partnership.’ The authors show how the historical legacy of the struggle for liberation in South Africa creates favourable conditions for the development of bilateral relations in the 21st century. In addition, on the eve of the conference, its participants present a whole ‘scatter’ of expert comments, one of which – ‘The BRICS Summit in Rio: the African vector of cooperation of the Global South’ – was also prepared by employees of the Centre for African Strategy in BRICS (E.A. Abramova, T.A. Andreeva, D.A. Zelenova).
The first two sessions of the conference – " Group of Twenty and BRICS: Assessing Strategic Roles in a Changing Global Order‘ and ’Humanitarian Cooperation and the Role of Historical Memory in Russia's Relations with South Africa and Other African Countries" – were held in open session, with the participation of numerous representatives of African and Russian media. Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Political Science, PhD in Economic Sciences, Professor D.A. Degtyarev acted as a discussant during the second session, describing the current state of cooperation between Russia and Africa in the field of higher education. In his speech, he presented a special issue of the Scientific Notes of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (No. 2 2025), dedicated to the analysis of successful examples of Russian-African educational cooperation.
The next two sessions of the conference – ‘Bilateral Relations between Russia and South Africa: Current Status and Prospects’ and ‘Trump and the World Order’ – were held without media participation. Head of the Centre for African Strategy in BRICS IAS RAS, D.A. Zelenova, during the third session, she presented the current prospects and problematic aspects of bilateral cooperation between Russia and South Africa, and highlighted successful examples of cooperation. The fourth session featured a discussion of the intensified hegemonic tendencies in US foreign policy.
On the sidelines of the conference, a series of fruitful meetings took place with leading researchers from South Africa, as well as Egypt, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, which will give impetus to cooperation between the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and scientific organisations on the continent.
