President Putin woos African leaders at Summit in Russia

St. Petersburg: Russian President Vladimir Putin courted leaders from Africa at a summit on Friday, hailing the continent’s growing role in global affairs and offering to expand political and business ties.

Addressing the two-day Russia-Africa summit, Putin said Moscow will closely analyze a peace proposal for Ukraine that African leaders have sought to pursue.

“This is an acute issue, and we aren’t evading its consideration,” Putin said, emphasising that Russia is treating the African initiative with respect and “looking at it attentively”.

He encouraged the African leaders to talk to Ukraine, which has refused to engage in talks until Russian troops pull back. “I believe it’s necessary to also talk to the other side, although we are grateful to our African friends for their attention to the issue,” Putin said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said African leaders were looking forward to engaging further with Putin later Friday on their peace proposal.

Ramaphosa, who leads sub-Saharan Africa’s most developed country, also spoke out against exploitation of the continent, saying that “we must stop those countries that count their wealth and their assets in terms of the minerals that reside in African soil”.

Putin in his speech reaffirmed his pledge that Russia will maintain steady supplies of grain and other agricultural products to the continent after its withdrawal from a deal allowing grain shipments from Ukraine. Moscow’s withdrawal from the Black Sea agreement has fuelled concerns of a global food crisis. “Russia will always be a responsible international supplier of agricultural products and will continue to support the countries and region in need by offering free grain and other supplies,” the Russian leader said. He declared at the summit’s opening Thursday that Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and Central African Republic each will receive 25,000 to 50,000 tons of Russian grain in the next three to four months.

In comparison, the UN World Food Programme shipped 725,000 tons of grain to several countries including Somalia under the Black Sea deal. UN Secretary-General Ant nio Guterres responded to Putin’s pledge of no-cost grain shipments by noting that such donations of grain can’t compensate for the impact of Moscow’s cutoff of grain exports from Ukraine, which along with Russia is a top supplier to the world market.