Russia will help African countries gain independent control over the extraction and development of their resources, according to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's welcome speech at the opening ceremony of the International Congress "Africa Seeks Solutions" in the country's city of Saint Petersburg.
During the congress, an agreement was signed on the creation of a consortium of technical universities from 42 countries, "Subsoil of Africa."
"I am convinced that the engineering and management personnel trained thanks to this project ['Subsoil of Africa'] will contribute to ensuring that African countries control the extraction and development of their own mineral resources and effective state regulation in the field of environmental management," Lavrov said in his greeting, the text of which was read out by Vsevolod Tkachenko, Director of the Africa Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Lavrov also underlined that "today, Saint Petersburg Mining University offers a new level of scientific and educational cooperation with Africa," noting that "'the 'Subsoil of Africa' has been created as an effective tool for our cooperation."
Russia is ready to "share knowledge and experience with African friends and generally support their desire to gain economic sovereignty, including in the field of environmental management," according to the foreign minister.
Geology and mineral exploration are among the key sectors in which Russia-African cooperation has recently seen development. In early November, Russian state-owned company RosGeo and South Sudan's Mining Ministry signed an agreement on mapping the African state's deposits of natural resources, Russian media reported.