Valdai Club

On July 19 at 12:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host an expert discussion dedicated to its 2nd Russian-African Conference, titled “Russia – Africa: Strategy for Cooperation in a Multipolar World”, which will take place on July 24 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The first Russian-African conference was held a year ago in St. Petersburg on the eve of the Russia-Africa summit. Now, with the support of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Tanzania and the Russian House in Dar es Salaam, the Valdai Club African conference will be held for the first time on African soil. More than 40 Club experts from Russia and African countries, as well as representatives of the political, expert and media community of Tanzania will take part. 

The conference will focus on several topics. The key one is the political dialogue between Russia and African countries, which comes a year after the St. Petersburg summit. Its development was significantly influenced by the expansion of BRICS, when, in addition to South Africa, two more African states – Egypt and Ethiopia – became members of BRICS. Thus, Africa received additional representation in the key structure that determines the general principles of the countries of the Global Non-West and Global South with regards to world politics and economics. Among other topics at the conference, economic cooperation between Russia and African countries will be discussed, as well as shared values, the role of media in their promotion, and cultural cooperation. Attendees will address the approaches of our countries to the problem of climate change in connection with the social agenda, as well as the steps we must take to combat global poverty and inequality.

During the discussion, two expert publications will be presented, prepared especially for discussion at the conference in Tanzania. The Valdai Club report “Russia-Africa Cooperation: Outlook and Objectives”, authored by a team at the Centre for African Studies at the Higher School of Economics under the leadership of Andrey Maslov, examines the first results of the development of Russian-African relations after last year’s summit in St. Petersburg, the progress of the implementation of the Summit decisions and priority tasks for the future.

The second expert publication is the Valdai Paper “Tanzanian New Ground for Russian Businesses. Prospects for Cooperation in Agriculture”. Its author is Mayya Nikolskaya, acting director of the Centre for African Studies at MGIMO University. The text is devoted to the important and topical issue of Russia’s contribution to ensuring food security in African countries using the example of Tanzania.

What has been achieved in the year since the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg? How has the expansion of BRICS affected the Russian-African dialogue? What are the prospects for the transition to new financial mechanisms in mutual settlements? In what ways do the approaches of Russia and African countries to the problems of climate change, the fight against poverty and inequality in the world coincide? Participants in the discussion will try to answer these and other questions.

• Oleg Ozerov, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Head of the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum
• Mayya Nikolskaya, acting Director of the Centre for African Studies at MGIMO
• Nourhan ElSheikh, Professor of Political Science at Cairo University; Member of the Egyptian Council on Foreign Affairs
• Mikatekiso Kubayi, PhD, Researcher at UNISA Institute for Global Dialogue, South Africa
• Daria Ilyenko, acting Head of the Russian House

Moderator:

• Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club

Working languages: Russian, English.

Information for the media: In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our web site. If you have any questions about the event, please call +79269307763