{"id":39059,"date":"2026-07-08T10:23:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=39059"},"modified":"2026-07-08T10:23:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:23:35","slug":"russian-foreign-minister-holds-talks-with-au-chief","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/russian-foreign-minister-holds-talks-with-au-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Foreign Minister holds talks with AU Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Russian Foreign Minister\u00a0Sergey\u00a0Lavrov\u00a0has held talks with African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Mahmoud\u00a0Ali\u00a0Youssouf\u00a0in Addis Ababa.<\/div>\n<div>\nThe meeting focused on security challenges across Africa, reforms to global governance, and preparations for the Russia and Africa Summit in Moscow later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Lavrov\u00a0also used the visit to underline Moscow&#8217;s plans to expand its diplomatic presence across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>Russia is presenting Africa as one of\u00a0the key centres in what it calls a new\u00a0multipolar\u00a0world order.<\/p>\n<p>After talks with Youssouf, \u00a0Lavrov\u00a0said Moscow shares the AU&#8217;s concerns about conflicts across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to instability in the Sahel, the Great Lakes region, the Horn of Africa, Sudan, South Sudan and Libya.<\/p>\n<p>Lavrov\u00a0said Russia will continue backing what he called African-led solutions to African problems. But security was only part of the message.<\/p>\n<p>Lavrov\u00a0described Africa as one of the world&#8217;s main\u00a0centres\u00a0of decision making and said its role in global affairs must grow.<\/p>\n<p>He repeated Russia&#8217;s support for a larger African presence on the United Nations Security Council, alongside greater representation for Asia and Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>According to Lavrov, Western countries already hold too many seats in key international institutions.<\/p>\n<p>Lavrov\u00a0also spoke of what he called Africa&#8217;s &#8220;second awakening&#8221;, a push for political independence, but also for economic, financial and energy sovereignty.<\/p>\n<p>Lavrov\u00a0said Russia sees itself as a long-term partner in that process.<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\nHe pointed to Moscow&#8217;s growing diplomatic footprint on the continent.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23755,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-39059","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Russia held talks with African Union Commission","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39061,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/39059\/revisions\/39061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=39059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}