Third Russia-Africa Summit opens at Moscow with the African Union chair co-presiding

28 October 2026

The third Russia-Africa Summit is being held at Moscow on 28 and 29 October 2026, co-chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the African Union chair Evariste Ndayishimiye, President of Burundi. Representatives from forty-eight African countries are taking part, with twenty-two heads of state attending according to Kremlin presidential aide Yury Ushakov, against seventeen heads of state at the 2023 summit. The theme is Developing Mutually Beneficial Cooperation. More than forty sessions and about a hundred speakers are to cover trade, investment, technology transfer, food and energy security, healthcare, education and youth exchange, and a final declaration together with a Russia-Africa Partnership Forum plan covering 2027 to 2029 is expected to be adopted. The first summit was held at Sochi in October 2019. Trade between Russia and Africa has exceeded 28 billion dollars, up from about 16.8 billion dollars in 2019. The African Union Commission Chairperson took part in the Russia-Africa Agro-Industrial Alliance event held alongside the summit.