President Cyril Ramaphosa. President Cyril Ramaphosa. File Picture
Durban – African leaders will be heading to St Petersburg in the Russian Federation for the second Russia-Africa summit on 27 and 28 July.
President Vladimir Putin has promised energetic efforts to provide grain, other food items and fertiliser to Africa saying Russia is expecting a bumper harvest this year.
Russia has withdrawn from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, leaving expressions of regret from the AU.
The Kremlin said Moscow is capable of providing the grain on a commercial and free of charge basis amid repeated claims that most Ukrainian grain was going to higher income countries anyway.
African leaders attending the summit are expected to again raise concerns over the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the continent.
Ramaphosa and leaders from Egypt, Senegal, Zambia and the Comoros recently met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin in a bid to negotiate an end to the war.
A 10-point framework document, which has not been made public and was presented to both presidents, states that the objective of the mission is to promote the importance of peace and to encourage the parties to agree to a diplomacy-led process of negotiations.
The document lists a number of measures that could be proposed by the African leaders as part of the first stage of their engagement with the warring parties.
Russian ambassador to South Africa Ilya Rogachev said the issues raised by the recent African Peace Mission would continue to be discussed at the second Russia-Africa summit next week.
Rogachev said the exchange of views and opinions already begun on some of the issues raised by the African mission.
“To the best of my knowledge the plan is a preliminary outlay of how the Africans view the situation and how they would like to discuss it.
“In general, we welcome this initiative. We take it as a manifestation of a positive attitude,” he told the SABC.
“Some of the points made during the meeting dealt with the shortage of grains, fertiliser and energy supplies.”
Rogachev said energy markets had become jittery prior to the special military operation, which started in Europe before 2021.
“As for grain and fertiliser deliveries according to the Black Sea Grain Initiative some 30 million tons of grain has been exported but most of it went to markets of wealthy countries in Europe and others.”