Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated African heads of state and government on Africa Day.
"Our country has always attached special importance to the development of friendly relations with African partners. The 2019 Russia-Africa summit in Sochi created good conditions for expanding fruitful cooperation both bilaterally and multilaterally," Putin said in a message published Wednesday in the Kremlin's Telegram channel.
The president expressed confidence that by acting together, Russia and African countries will ensure the development and implementation of many useful and promising projects and initiatives in a variety of fields in the interest of strengthening security and stability in Africa and the world.
Putin also noted that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the transformation of the Organization of African Unity into the African Union. "This event marked the entry of the pan-African multilateral structure to a qualitatively higher level of interaction in political, socio-economic and other spheres," the Russian leader stressed.
According to him, in two decades, African states have achieved a lot: mechanisms of collective response to local conflicts and crisis situations have been established, regional integration processes in various formats are consistently advancing, and Africa is enjoying growing prestige on the world stage and playing an increasingly important role in addressing issues on the international agenda.
Africa Day is celebrated on May 25 for the 59th time on the continent and around the world. This year, the African Union, comprised of 55 nations, announced that the events would be held under the theme of strengthening food security on the continent.
The holiday was proclaimed May 25, 1963, in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa when the continent's 32 nations created the Organization of African Unity. It was originally called African Liberation Day.
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Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS