Russia’s Lavrov courts Africa

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Congo Republic yesterday, the second leg of an African tour aimed at strengthening Moscow’s ties with a continent that has refused to join Western condemnation and sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.African countries, which have a tangled legacy of relations with the West and the former Soviet Union, have largely avoided taking sides over the war in Ukraine.Many import Russian grain and increasingly energy too, but they also buy Ukrainian grain and benefit from Western aid flows and trade ties.Africa is also being courted by the West this week, with French President Emmanuel Macron due to visit Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau and US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Mike Hammer on his way to Egypt and Ethiopia.Lavrov has already visited Egypt and will head from Congo to Uganda, then Ethiopia, where African Union diplomats said he had invited ambassadors from several member states to a private meeting tomorrow, dismaying Western donors.An invitation letter from the Russian ambassador to Ethiopia and the AU, sent to a number of African ambassadors and seen by Reuters, said the goal of the meeting was to deepen co-operation between Russia and African states.Two AU diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity said the planned meeting, which would coincide with Hammer’s visit, was causing friction among Western donors because it signalled a pivot towards Russia. Spokespersons for the AU, which is based in Addis Ababa, and for the Ethiopian foreign affairs ministry did not respond to requests for comment.In a column published in newspapers in the four countries included in his tour, Lavrov praised Africa for resisting what he called Western attempts to impose a unipolar world order.