🎙 Remarks by President of Russia Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the Heads of Africa’s leading regional organisations (Moscow, October 28, 2026) 💬 Vladimir Putin: I would like to emphasise that, for our country, strengthening relations with pan-African associations is a natural extension of our long-term policy of maintaining equal and mutually beneficial partnerships with African states. The African Union has been and remains Russia’s key partner among regional organisations. A three-year roadmap is in place, providing a framework for our cooperation in trade and the economy, science and technology, social affairs, humanitarian and cultural matters, as well as politics and security. We believe it would be useful to step up cooperation between Russian banking institutions and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System established by the African Union and Afreximbank. 🤝 Russia is committed to continuing close coordination with the African Union on a broad range of foreign policy issues. We remain open to dialogue on peace and security, as well as crisis resolution and prevention. We stand ready to continue assisting our African partners in countering such common challenges and threats of our time as terrorism, transnational crime and drug trafficking. ☝️ Naturally, Russia is interested in developing partnerships with all the other African integration associations represented here. Certain steps are already being taken in this direction. In particular, a substantial package of intergovernmental and interagency documents on our cooperation with the African Continental Free Trade Area, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community and the Economic Community of Central African States has been agreed ahead of this Summit. I would like to note that Russia, like African states, is deeply involved in regional integration processes. Our country was a founding member of the Eurasian Economic Union, which we are successfully developing together with friendly neighbouring states and which aims to establish common markets for goods, services, capital and labour. 🌍 I would like to emphasise once again that Russia’s partnership with Africa’s regional organisations is an important addition to our bilateral relations and contacts with our African friends. This multifaceted cooperation fully serves the interests of all our states and contributes to sustainable economic growth and prosperity for all. Read in full #RussiaAfrica