Moscow, June 23: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will begin his first official visit to Africa on Tuesday to further strengthen ties with an old partner, Egypt, and promote Moscow’s economic interests in the lucrative sub-Saharan region.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is expected to be high on the agenda when Medvedev visits Egypt, the first point of his four-day trip also taking in Nigeria, Namibia and Angola.
Medvedev is going to Cairo soon after US President Barack Obama outlined his new course in the Middle East this month, departing from a policy of his predecessor George W Bush seen by many Arab states as pro-Israeli.
Moscow, in turn, has to adjust its regional diplomacy which has exploited the alienation between the West and the Arab world since Cold War times.
As well as talks with President Hosni Mubarak, Medvedev will visit the headquarters of the Arab League, underscoring the importance of the issue for Moscow, a member of the Quartet of negotiators with the United States, the European Union and United Nations.
“We see Russia as a strategic partner,” Russian media quoted Egyptian Parliamentary Speaker Fathi Sorour as saying. “We hope Russia will continue playing a balancing role.”
Russia’s role in the Middle East is limited, but it does have some chips to bargain with.
Moscow is the only Quartet member talking to Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip but is snubbed by Israel and the West. Russia also has good contacts with Israel.
Lobbying for Russian trade
Apart from diplomacy, Medvedev will lobby for the Russian firms working in Egypt — Russia’s leading trading partner in the Arab world, with an annual turnover of USD 3.4 billion.
Wheat shipments from Russia have been under scrutiny in Egypt since mid-May, when the prosecutor ordered a probe after dead bugs and impurities were found in Russian wheat imported by private firm Egyptian Traders.
Egypt’s grain sector was pushed towards chaos on suspicion that the cargo of Russian wheat may have carried false quality documents, casting a shadow over Moscow’s plans for expansion in the lucrative market.
Egypt’s plans to put out to tender the construction of a nuclear energy plant worth up to USD 2 billion has drawn interest from Russian companies, who are looking for political support.
Russian economic interests will dominate Medvedev’s visits to Nigeria, Namibia and Angola, where Moscow faces competition from China and the West for resources.
Last year, Russian gas giant Gazprom signed an oil and gas exploration agreement with Nigeria, a deal which could strengthen its position as a supplier of natural gas to Europe and North America.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp, the country’s state-run oil firm, said it had signed the memorandum of understanding with Gazprom on joint venture projects which could be worth up to USD 2.5 billion.
“It is time to start realising joint projects in Nigeria,” Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said after a meeting of the inter-government commission in March.
Russian companies have already made an initial entry into Angola and Namibia, where they eye a role in extracting oil, diamonds and uranium.
–Agencies