Talks are expected to focus on grain supplies and political cooperation amid the standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to host the head of the African Union for talks on grain supplies and political cooperation amid the Kremlin’s standoff with the West over Ukraine.
Washington and Brussels have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Moscow for invading Ukraine and have urged Putin to seek new markets and strengthen ties with countries in Africa and Asia.
Grain prices in Africa, the world’s poorest continent, have skyrocketed as exports from Ukraine collapsed, compounding the impact of conflict and climate change and fueling fears of social unrest.
On Friday, Putin will receive Senegalese President Macky Sall, head of the African Union, at his Black Sea residence in Sochi.
The aim of the visit is to “release grain and fertilizer stocks, the blocking of which mainly affects African countries” and to defuse the Ukraine conflict, Sall’s office said on Thursday.
Sall will be accompanied by the President of the African Union Commission.
The Kremlin said the talks would address “issues of Russia’s interaction with the African Union, including expanding political dialogue, economic and humanitarian cooperation.”
“The current international agenda” will also be discussed, she added.
Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and a spate of international sanctions against Russia have disrupted shipments of fertilizer, wheat and other commodities from both countries and pushed up food and fuel prices, particularly in developing countries.
“Unprecedented Crisis”
Ships loaded with grain remain blocked in Ukraine, which before February was a leading exporter of corn and wheat and alone accounted for 50 percent of world trade in sunflower seeds and oil.
Putin said Moscow is ready to explore ways to ship grain stuck in Ukrainian ports, but urged the West to lift sanctions.
Food prices in Africa have already surpassed those following the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and the 2008 food riots.
The United Nations has said Africa is facing an “unprecedented” crisis caused by the conflict.
Sall earlier urged European Union leaders to help ease the crisis in key commodities and said their decision to ban Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system could hurt the continent’s food supply.
However, Sall acknowledged that Russia’s blockade of the Ukrainian city of Odessa had hurt food exports and supported UN-led efforts to liberate the port.
In 2019, Putin hosted dozens of African leaders in Sochi to reaffirm Russia’s influence on the continent.
Although never a colonial power in Africa, Moscow was a key player on the continent during the Soviet era, supporting independence movements and educating a generation of African leaders.
Russia’s ties with Africa declined with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and in recent years China has emerged as a major foreign power on the continent.