Joint Statement of the African Union–Russian Federation High-Level Consultations

Document Type

Press releases

7 Jul 2026 - 15:56

Body

On 7 July 2026, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, H.E. Mr. Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, conducted high-level consultations at the Headquarters of the African Union Commission (AUC) in Addis Ababa, aimed at reviewing the state of cooperation between the African Union and the Russian Federation and exploring avenues for further strengthening their partnership. The consultations provided an opportunity for an open and constructive exchange of views on international and regional developments, including the evolving global geopolitical landscape, the state of multilateral cooperation, global governance reform, and peace and security challenges affecting Africa and the world.

Africa-Russia Partnership

The Chairperson of the African Union Commission and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation reaffirmed the longstanding historical ties between Africa and the Russian Federation, founded on solidarity, mutual respect, sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs, and shared aspirations for peace, development and prosperity.
The two sides reviewed progress made in the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Russian Federation and the African Union on Basic Principles of Relations and Cooperation, signed by both sides in 2019, as well as the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan 2023-2026 and Russia-AU Commission Action Plan 2023-2026, with a view to adopt a new action plan for the next three year period of 2027-2029, identify and address existing gaps and further deepen cooperation in areas of mutual interest, including in the lead up to the upcoming 3rd Africa-Russia Summit, scheduled on 28-29 October 2026, in Moscow.

Political Affairs, Peace and Security

The Chairperson of the African Union Commission and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation exchanged views on global geopolitical and regional issues, and while stressing the primacy of dialogue, diplomacy and political solutions in addressing international disputes and crises, they reaffirmed their commitment to promoting peace, security, and stability across Africa and globally.
The two sides discussed peace and security developments across the African continent, including the situations in the Sahel region, the Great Lakes region, the Horn of Africa, Sudan and South Sudan and Libya. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation reiterated his country’s support for African-led and African-owned approaches to conflict prevention, mediation, peacebuilding, and post-conflict reconstruction and development, in line with the principle of “African Solutions to African Problems”. Both sides highlighted the need for enhanced and sustained international support for African peace initiatives and institutions.
The two sides emphasized that predictable, adequate, and sustainable financing for African Union-led peace support operations authorized by the United Nations Security Council is essential to enhancing Africa’s capacity to respond to peace and security challenges. In this regard, they underscored the need for the timely and effective operationalization of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2719. They called for continued cooperation among relevant stakeholders to ensure its full implementation in a manner that strengthens African-led solutions to African peace and security challenges.
The African Union Commission and the Russian Federation agreed on the importance of close coordination between the three elected African members (A3) of the UN Security Council and delegation of the Russian Federation in New York on matters of peace and security.
The two sides call for strict adherence to international law and the UN Charter in its entirety as the bedrock of international relations to maintain peace, resolve disputes peacefully and uphold sovereign equality.
The two sides highlighted the significance of the African Union theme of the 2026-2035 decade: “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations”.

Multilateralism and reform of international governance and financial architectures

The African Union Commission and the Russian Federation reiterated their commitment to advancing effective multilateralism and restoring trust in the multilateral system, with the United Nations at its centre, to address emerging global challenges. Both sides stressed the need to approach the reform of the UN Security Council through redressing the historical injustice against Africa and treating the continent as a special case. In this regard, the Russian Federation expressed support for the African Common Position as reflected in the Ezulwini Consensus and Sirte Declaration regarding the urgent need for a comprehensive reform of the Council to ensure equitable representation of Africa in global decision-making processes.
The two sides underscored the urgent need for a more inclusive, equitable, transparent, deploticized and development-oriented international financial architecture that adequately reflects the priorities and realities of developing countries, particularly African States. They expressed concern over the disproportionate debt burden, high cost of capital, limited access to concessional financing, and vulnerability to external economic shocks faced by many African countries. In this regard, they called for strengthened international efforts to enhance debt sustainability, expand access to affordable long-term financing, increase the representation and voice of African countries in international financial institutions, and reform global financial mechanisms to better support sustainable development and economic resilience across Africa. They further emphasized the importance of mobilizing additional development finance, facilitating technology transfer and capacity building, and promoting fairer international trade and investment frameworks to mitigate structural constraints on Africa's growth and development. They also support the reform of multilateral development banks (MDBs), with the aim of expanding lending to developing countries, especially to African States, and assisting them in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, diversifying the geographic and sectoral structure of MDB Project operations, and attracting financing from various sources, including in national currencies.

Food Security

The Chairperson of the African Union Commission and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation expressed concern over the global food security situation, particularly its effects on African countries. They underscored the importance of ensuring the uninterrupted supply of food, fertilizers, and agricultural inputs to African markets and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation in agriculture, enhancing food production and resilience, and supporting efforts aimed at achieving sustainable food security across the continent.

Health cooperation and response to the Ebola outbreak

The Chairperson of the African Union Commission and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation expressed deep concern over the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreaks declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Uganda, and the growing risk of regional spread within and beyond Africa. The two sides agreed to explore avenues to enhance cooperation towards supporting Africa CDC in coordinating rapid response to contain the outbreak as well as enhancing preparedness and surveillance measures, laboratory systems, scientific research and public health capacity-building.

Energy and Infrastructure

On infrastructure and energy, the two sides expressed interest in exploring opportunities for collaboration in support of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), energy access, industrial development, transport connectivity and technological advancement.

Economic Development, Trade and Investment

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation reaffirmed support for Africa’s development priorities as articulated in Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. In this regard, both sides underscored the importance of aligning future cooperation initiatives with the implementation of Agenda 2063, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and the continent’s industrialisation and economic transformation agenda.
Both sides recognised the importance of expanding economic cooperation and increasing mutually beneficial trade and investment flows. In this regard, they encouraged closer engagement between African and Russian public and private sector institutions and welcomed ongoing efforts to strengthen Africa–Russia business cooperation mechanisms.

Institutionalization of dialogue between the AU Commission and Russia

The African Union Commission and the Russian Federation welcomed ongoing preparations for the forthcoming third Russia–Africa Summit on 28-29 October 2026, in Moscow, and expressed confidence that the Summit would provide renewed impetus to Africa–Russia relations and contribute to advancing common priorities.
Guided by the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Russian Federation and the African Union on the Basic Principles of Relations and Cooperation, signed on October 24, 2019, the two sides agreed to strengthen institutional dialogue, also by launching sectoral dialogues and expert consultations involving relevant entities from Russia and the African Union, aiming to foster systematic advancement of Russia Africa cooperation in priority areas. In this regard, both sides tasked their respective officials to continue consultations on follow-up actions arising from the present meeting.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission expressed appreciation to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and his delegation for the constructive engagement and reaffirmed the African Union’s readiness to further deepen cooperation with the Russian Federation in pursuit of peace, sustainable development and shared prosperity.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation expressed gratitude to the Chairperson and the African Union Commission for the warm reception and reaffirmed the Russian Federation’s commitment to strengthening its partnership with Africa and supporting the continent’s peace, security and development aspirations.
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation agreed to conduct regular high-level political consultations (at least once a year) in order to establish a long-term, predictable framework for cooperation between Russia and the African Union. In this regard, both sides agreed to holding the next high-level consultations in 2027, at a mutually agreed date and venue.

Issued on 7 July 2026 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Press Release

Joint Statement (EN)

Images

References

Department Tags

AUC Chairperson

AUC Chairperson Tags

H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf - Current Chairperson

NOW

Images

References

Cabinet of the Chairperson

Department Resources