Reawakening Africa – OpEd
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during his traditional media conference summarizing the performance of Russian diplomacy in 2025, described the entire African leadership as currently in the process of waking up, from its deep slumber, to ensure political sovereignty, and now making assertive efforts toward establishing economic independence.
Looking at the current picture, "Africa is already beginning to undergo a second reawakening. It is comprehending the fact that political independence did not facilitate economic independence, and that Africa is continuously exploited with neo-colonial methods," Lavrov explained.
Former centres of empires that granted political independence to their former colonies continue to live at their expense. This comprehension is now asserting itself on the African continent, he emphasized, and further added: "We can feel this every day during our numerous contacts with African countries. We are watching it. We can hold an interactive dialogue on changes in the conceptual vision and concrete processes in the development of a new world order."
Centres of growth reflect an objective historical process, specifically, the development of the economy, the infrastructure, the use of natural resources and many other things. In the long run, they have to reach agreement on how the new major national or regional players, members of integration associations, should collaborate with one other, he told the conference participants.
Today, the world is witnessing turbulent developments in the context of stronger multipolarity, however a dialogue on how to streamline it is on the agenda. This will take a lot of time. Some people say this process will encompass an entire historical era. But, in any case, this process is inevitable, according to Lavrov.
Generally, Russia, with Africa, has relations of true partnership, offers tremendous support and mutual assistance. In Cairo, Minister Sergey Lavrov has re-affirmed to implement several outstanding bilateral agreements in the strategic agenda-Action Plan (2023-2026) and to advance its diverse partnerships in different spheres. These include sustaining excellent political dialogues, stepping up projects in various economic sectors, and strengthening humanitarian assistance and raising its "soft power" across Africa.
The Russia-Africa summits earlier took place in Sochi (October 2019) and St. Petersburg (July 2023). Russia and Africa are currently preparing for the third Russia-Africa summit. A key milestone in this substantive process was the second Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, held in Cairo, Egypt, in December 2025.