Russia-Africa Forum to Prioritize Economic Ties, Says Foreign Ministry Official
L'essentiel
Anatoly Bashkin, Director of the Africa Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated that economic issues will be the main focus of the Russia-Africa forum, aiming to boost lagging trade and investment ties despite strong political and security relations.
Résumé généré par IA
MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Economic issues should be in the focus of the Russia-Africa forum and the economic agenda will dominate, Director of the Department of Africa at the Russian Foreign Ministry Anatoly Bashkin told TASS.
"Expectations [from the forum] are huge. I am very happy in the first instance that the economic agenda will prevail there," the diplomat said. "This is because we have very good political, humanitarian, military, military-technical and security relations with Africans but our trade-economic and investment ties chronically lag behind," Bashkin said.
When answering a question whether economic issues are in the focus of the forum’s agenda, Bashkin replied, "I hope so."
"We need to pay as much attention as possible exactly to this aspect of our cooperation now," the diplomat. "Economy is actually the basis of politics. We need to develop it by all the efforts, all the ways," he added.
