S. African president to use summit in Russia to advance Africa's peace plan

South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa will use his attendance at the Russia-Africa summit to advance a peace plan that he and three other African presidents pitched on visits to Kyiv and Moscow last month, according to South African officials. The plan has called for not just free trade in the Black Sea but also the importance of territorial sovereignty, Report informs via The Financial Times.

African leaders will this week travel to St Petersburg for a high-level summit hosted by Vladimir Putin that reveals how even Russia’s resurgence on the continent cannot mask the consequences of its war in Ukraine.

The first Russia-Africa summit, in 2019, was a statement of the Kremlin’s ambitions to grow its overseas influence, as dozens of African leaders took in exhibits of weaponry and nuclear technology.

The successor gathering, which begins on Thursday, comes a year and a half into Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine. Moscow’s forces have stepped up the bombing of Ukrainian ports since it exited a UN-led grain deal, leaving some African leaders fretting over possible food riots at home.