Russia understands needs of modern Africa – Lavrov

Africa wants a fair place in the emerging multipolar world order and the ability to take advantage of its vast natural resources, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said during his visit to Mozambique. 

“Africa doesn’t want to return to colonial times,” Lavrov said on Wednesday during a press conference in Mozambique’s capital Maputo, where he arrived after visiting Kenya and Burundi.

The continent “wants to make the most of the natural resources it possesses – and not just to trade raw materials that have been exported from here for centuries, but to make products that would have added value and be in demand,” he said. 

According to Russia’s top diplomat, modern Africa is “immeasurably more aware of its identity and is increasingly, insistently demanding for itself an equal place in the emerging multipolar world order.”

This includes “fair and proper representation [of African nations] in the UN Security Council, which Russia supports,” he added.

Lavrov is currently on an African tour in preparation for the second high-level Russia-Africa Summit to take place in St. Petersburg in July. 

According to Mozambique's Public Works, Housing and Water Resources Minister Carlos Mesquita, the country’s President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, with whom Lavrov held talks, “welcomed the effort of Russia to organize the summit and expressed readiness, if necessary, to contribute to the establishment of peace and good neighborly relativist between Russia and Ukraine.”