Russia’s Third Russia-Africa Summit will be held in Moscow at the end of October 2026, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed on 8 April, in a shift from earlier indications that the summit would take place on African soil.
Lavrov made the announcement at the 46th meeting of the Foreign Ministry’s Council of Heads of Russian Constituent Entities, saying that preparations are currently underway. A cooperation plan between Russia and African countries covering the period until 2029 is expected to be approved at the summit.
The confirmation marks a change in venue from what Moscow and its African partners had previously indicated. Earlier communiques from the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum had stated that the third summit would be hosted on the African continent, a position reiterated in joint statements as recently as the ministerial conference held in 2024.
The summit is the centrepiece of a broader acceleration in Russia’s engagement with Africa. Moscow is holding five meetings of intergovernmental commissions with African countries in the first half of 2026, with negotiations underway with ten additional countries. By year’s end, the network of such commissions may approach 30.
Russia’s engagement with African states has been deepened through academic and soft power channels as well. In March, Moscow State University (MSU) convened a telebridge connecting platforms in Moscow, Senegal, and Burkina Faso, formalising a memorandum of cooperation between MSU’s Faculty of Global Processes and Assane Seck University in Ziguinchor, Senegal. Participants from Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Togo, and Sudan took part, and speakers framed the event as a contribution to preparing the upcoming summit.
The security dimension of Russia’s Africa strategy has advanced in parallel. In August 2025, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, grouped under the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), signed a defence cooperation memorandum in Moscow envisioning deeper coordination and support for a planned joint Sahel force, positioning Russia as the bloc’s key external security partner.
Russia’s push to deepen Africa ties comes against the backdrop of intensifying competition for influence across the continent, with the Sahel accounting for a disproportionate share of global terrorism activity and Western powers facing diminishing political access in several key states.
