Russian foreign minister’s trip to Africa an attempt to shore up support

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is this week visiting four African countries to counter western efforts to isolate and sanction his country due to the war on Ukraine. He began his tour in Egypt on Sunday before travelling on to the Republic of Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia, which suffer severe conflict-caused shortages of grain to feed people and livestock.

In Cairo, he called for a “political and diplomatic” settlement for the Ukraine conflict during talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shukry, and Arab League secretary general Ahmed Aboul Gheit. Lavrov blamed the war on Ukraine’s insistence on joining Nato which Russia regards as an existential threat. He said Ukraine halted peace talks by proclaiming there “will be no negotiations until Ukraine defeats Russia on the battlefield”.

Close ties with Russia and the West and dependence on Russian and Ukrainian grain imports have compelled Egypt to adopt neutrality toward Russia’s war on Ukraine. Russia sells weapons to Egypt and Russia’s state-owned energy firm, Rosatom, has begun construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant.

Since Sisi last week visited Russian ally Serbia and Ukrainian backers France and Germany he has been mentioned as a potential mediator between Moscow and Kyiv.

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Lavrov flew on Monday to northern Congo for a meeting with President Denis Sassou Nguesso before proceeding to Kampala for talks with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni. Lavrov will wind up his tour in Addis Ababa where he can expect a warm welcome from Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed. Russian-Ethiopian relations have been shaped by Soviet support against a Somalian attack and Eritrean and Tigrayan separatists. Since war erupted in Ukraine, hundreds of former Ethiopian soldiers have volunteered to fight on the Russian side.

While in Addis Ababa, Lavrov will also address the African Union. Russia benefits from the former Soviet Union’s long-standing support for Africa’s liberation movements from western colonial powers. The Soviet Union armed Egypt in 1955 and provided training and weapons for confronting Israel in 1973. That war, eventually, led Egypt to make peace with Israel in 1979 and regain the Sinai Peninsula occupied by Israel in 1967.

Russian food deliveries

Ahead of his tour, Lavrov published an article in leading newspapers in these countries in order to deny western allegations that Russia “exports hunger” to developing countries by blocking shipments of grain from Ukrainian ports. He argued that western sanctions have reduced Russian deliveries disrupted by Covid-19 and said these charges are an “attempt to shift the blame to others”. Russia will fulfil contracts on “exports of food, fertilisers, energy and other goods vital for Africa”, he said. Russia exports 17-20 per cent of global wheat supplies while Ukraine provides 9-10 per cent.

Lavrov’s mission follows the conclusion of UN-Turkish-brokered agreements to alleviate global food crises by ending the blockade of Black Sea ports and creating safe corridors for the shipment of 25 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain to Africa and the Middle East. Despite a Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Odesa port on Sunday, he argued the agreements would go forward and force the West to stop “preventing Russian grain from being delivered to buyers”.