Lavrov may visit more African countries, says senior Russian diplomat

MOSCOW, February 10. Russian top diplomat Sergey Lavrov may visit a few more African countries ahead of forthcoming BRICS events, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov said on Friday.

"Preparations are currently underway for the BRICS summit in South Africa. I believe that our [foreign] minister will visit two or three more African countries on his way to the foreign ministers’ meeting," Bogdanov noted at a meeting of the organizing committee of an international parliamentary conference dubbed "Russia and Africa in the Multipolar World."

The 15th BRICS summit will take place in the South African city of Durban on August 22-24. South Africa chose partnership between BRICS and Africa for faster growth, sustainable development and inclusive multilateralism as the theme of its BRICS chairmanship.

In 2006, Brazil, Russia, India and China created the BRIC group, which turned into BRICS after South Africa joined the four nations in 2011. This year, South Africa is chairing the group for the third time.

Origin: https://bit.ly/3YK9ZeJ