On March 20, 2023, the two-day second Russian-African parliamentary meeting will close in Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the closing ceremony that Russia will continue to give priority to cooperation with Africa, and announced the cancellation of more than US$20 billion in debts of African countries.

The theme of this conference is Russia and Africa in a multipolar world, and more than 40 official parliamentary delegations from African countries attended the conference. This Russian-African parliamentary meeting is the second held after the first meeting in 2019.

Putin said Russia had written off more than $20 billion in debt to African countries. He emphasized that Russia will continue to give priority to cooperation with Africa, is determined to continue to establish a full-fledged strategic partnership with African friends, is ready to jointly shape the global agenda, and work together to strengthen fair and equitable inter-state relations and improve mutually beneficial economic cooperation mechanism.

During the meeting, Russian and African parliamentarians and experts also discussed economic challenges, Russian-African cooperation in the fields of security, science and education, and Western neo-colonialism in Africa.Editor/XingWentao