Russia’s New Strategy in the African Direction

620
DOI: 10.20542/0131-2227-2019-63-12-90-100

I. Abramova (irina.abramova@inafr.ru),
Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, 30/1, Spiridonovka Str., Moscow, 123001, Russian Federation;
L. Fituni (africa.institute@yandex.ru),
Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, 30/1, Spiridonovka Str., Moscow, 123001, Russian Federation

Acknowledgements. The article was prepared as part of the Basic Research Program of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences for 2019 ¹ 22 “Analysis and Forecast of New Global Challenges for Russia”, Subprogram “Africa in New Global Realities: Challenges and Opportunities for Russia”.


Abstract. This article critically reviews the previous and the still existing scholarship that promotes skeptical and arrogant approach to the debate on Russia’s economic cooperation with Africa. It problematizes prevailing conceptualizations, addresses methodological difficulties of data analysis, scrutinizes theoretical references in past argumentations and political actions in this respect. As an alternative to negative approaches prevailing in the 1990s and early 2000s, the authors suggest to cease neglecting the window of opportunities opened by dynamic nature of the rapidly developing African economies. Time is ripe for launching and implementing a New Strategy of economic cooperation with Africa. The article provides an analysis of the accumulated experience of Soviet-African cooperation. It demonstrates the available possibilities of reaping benefit from its use for the purposes of strengthening Russia’s economic and political positions on the African continent to achieve the announced goals of becoming one of the five largest economies in the world, ensuring high rates of economic growth, and creating in the basic sectors of the economy, particularly in manufacturing and agriculture, a highly productive export-oriented sector, based on modern technologies and fully provided with highly qualified personnel. The authors posit that in the existing conditions it is almost impossible to complete this ambitious task without interacting with African market. Russian industry undergoes a long awaited but still tentative revival. Emerging and developing countries, particularly burgeoning African economies, which offer an ever increasing demand, currently offer welcoming environment for testing the quality and competitiveness of Russian manufacturing goods. China selected this path in the 1990s, successfully taking over the share of the rapidly growing African consumer market vacated by Russia. However, it is not only and not so much an increase in mutual trade that Africa awaits from Russia, not even cooperation in mining, but investments in other strategic industries and sectors of the economy, such as energy generation, infrastructure construction, particularly transport related infrastructure projects like highways and road construction, railways, airports and maritime ports development, processing and manufacturing, sectors of advanced technological knowledge and skills application.

Keywords: Africa, USSR, Russian-African cooperation, Sochi Summit, non-resource export, investment, scientific diplomacy


REFERENCES

1. Davidson A.B. …Izhe imenuetsya Afrika. Vesti iz russkoi stariny [Also Called Africa. News from Russian Antiquity]. Moscow, Printsipium, 2017. 560 p.

2. USSR and African Countries 1946–1962: Documents and Materials. Vol. II: September 1960–1962. Moscow, Gospolitizdat, 1963. 766 p. (In Russ.)

3. Soviet-African Economic Relations: Results, Trends, and Possible Changes in the Conditions for Cooperation until 1990. Moscow, Institut Afriki AN SSSR, 1976. 141 p. (In Russ.)

4. Tarabrin E.A., ed. SSSR i strany Afriki. Druzhba, sotrudnichestvo, podderzhka antiimperialisticheskoi bor’by [USSR and African Countries. Friendship, Cooperation, Support for the Anti-imperialist Struggle]. Moscow, Mysl’, 1977. 414 p.

5. Koshelev P.Ya. Sovetsko-afrikanskoe sotrudnichestvo: itogi i perspektivy. Doklad na sovetsko-afrikanskoi nauchno-politicheskoi konferentsii “Za mir i sotsial’nyi progress” [Soviet-African Cooperation: Results and Prospects. Soviet-African Scientific and Political Conference “For Peace and Social Progress”]. Moscow, Institut Afriki, 1981. 22 p.

6. Deich T.L., Kukushkin P.V. Sovetsko-afrikanskie otnosheniya v svete novogo politicheskogo myshleniya [Soviet-African Relations in the Light of New Political Thinking]. Moscow, Institut Afriki AN SSSR, 1988. 56 p.

7. Dmitrieva I. V. Obrazovanie v Afrike: dostizheniya i problemy [Education in Africa: Achievements and Challenges]. Moscow, Nauka, 1991. 109 p.

8. Kalinina L.P. Gvineya: Spravochnik [Guinea: A Guide]. Moscow, Nauka, 1994. 244 p.

9. Research Vessel “Cosmonaut George Dobrovolsky”. Site of the space service fleet veterans (In Russ.) Available at: http://niskgd.ru/pages/qa.htm (accessed 05.03.2019).

10. Foreign Trade of the USSR in 1986: Statistical Yearbook. Moscow, Finansy i statistika, 1987. 277 p. (In Russ.)

11. Official Rates of the State Bank of the USSR, Central Bank of the Russian Federation (In Russ.) Available at: https://www.cbr.ru/currency_base/GosBankCurs/ (accessed 10.03.2018).

12. Deich T.L., Korendyasov E.N., eds. Rossiisko-afrikanskie otnosheniya v usloviyakh globalizatsii [Russian-African Relations in the Context of Globalization]. Moscow, Institut Afriki RAN, 2009. 146 p.

13. The Results of Foreign Economic Activity of Russia in 2018, Department of Development and Regulation of Foreign Economic Activity (In Russ.) Available at: http://economy.gov.ru/minec/about/structure/depregved/201820111 (accessed 10.04.2019).

14. Sakharov E.V. Vneshnii dolg byvshego SSSR [External Debt of the Former USSR]. Gornyi informatsionnoanaliticheskii byulleten’, 2005, no. 12, pp. 287-289.

15. To Whom Russia Forgave Debts. Kommersant, 10.12.2013 (In Russ.) Available at: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2364889 (accessed 04.07.2018).

16. Lavrov Told How Much Russia Wrote off Debts to African Countries, RIA Novosti, 12.09.2018 (In Russ.) Available at: https://ria.ru/20180912/1528348821.html (accessed 15.09.2018).

17. Lavrov Announced that Russia Has Written off More Than $20 Billion of Debts to African Countries over the past 15 years. TASS, 12.09.2018 (In Russ.) Available at: https://tass.ru/vef-2018/articles/5553684 (accessed 13.09.2019).

18. Abramova I., Fituni L. Adaptatsiya “afrikanskogo vektora” vneshneekonomicheskoi politiki RF k menyayushcheisya ekonomicheskoi kon”yunkture na kontinente [Adapting the African Vector of Russia’s External Economic Policies to the Changes of Economic Environment on the Continent]. Journal of the Institute for African Studies, 2017, no. 1(38), pp. 24-36.

19. Fituni L., Abramova I. Patterns of Formation and Transition of Models of Global Economic Development. African Studies in Russia: Works of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moscow, Institute for African Studies RAS, 2014, pp. 5-24.

20. Fituni L.L. A New Era: Soviet Policy in Southern Africa. Africa Report, 1989, no. 34(4), pp. 63-65.

21. Abramova I.O. Afrikanskoe turne S. V. Lavrova: novye vyzovy i perspektivy rossiisko-afrikanskogo sotrudnichestva [Lavrov’s African Tour: New Challenges and Perspectives for Russian Cooperation with Africa]. Aziya i Afrika segodnya, 2018, no. 5(730), pp. 2-10. DOI:10.7868/S032150751805001X

22. Abramova I.O., Fituni L.L. Potentsial afrikanskogo kontinenta v sovremennykh strategiyakh razvitiya rossiiskoi ekonomiki [The Potential of the African Continent in the Development Strategy of the Russian Economy]. Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 2017, vol. 61, no. 9, pp. 24-35. DOI:10.20542/0131-2227-2017-61-9-24-35

23. Commodity Structure of Exports of the Russian Federation, FCS of Russia (In Russ.) Available at: http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/vnesh-t/ts-exp.xls (accessed 03.09.2019).

24. Comments on the State and Business. Institute “Development Center” NRU “Higher School of Economics” (In Russ.) Available at: https://dcenter.hse.ru/data/2018/03/23/1164011793/pb_18-02.pdf (accessed 03.09.2019).

25. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 07.05.2018 No. 204 “On national goals and strategic objectives of the development of the Russian Federation for the period until 2024” (In Russ.) Available at: http://www.kremlin.ru/acts/bank/43027/page/1 (accessed 31.05.2018).

26. Global Competitiveness Index. World Economic Forum. Available at: http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitivenessindex‑2017-2018/competitiveness-rankings/ (accessed 04.07.2018).

27. Doing business 2018. World Bank Group. Available at: http://www.doingbusiness.org/~/media/WBG/DoingBusiness/Documents/Annual-Reports/English/DB2018-Full-Report.pdf (accessed 13.07.2018).

28. Novikova Z.S. Rossiyskiye telekommunikatsionnye kompanii v Afrike [Russian Telecommunications Companies in Africa]. Journal of the Institute for African Studies, 2017, no. 1(38), pp. 56-63.

29. African Economic Outlook 2017. African Development Bank, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, United Nations Development Programme. Available at: https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/development/african-economic-outlook‑2017_aeo‑2017-en# (accessed 18.07.2018).

30. World Development Indicators 2018. The World Bank. Available at: https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators (accessed 19.07.2018).

31. Fiscal Policy for Financing Sustainable Development in Africa: Economic Report on Africa 2019. United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Available at: https://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/PublicationFiles/era-en-final-web.pdf (accessed 19.07.2018).

32. Regions and Countries. Russian Export Center (In Russ.) Available at: https://www.exportcenter.ru/international_markets/world_map/ (accessed 26.08.2019).

33. Bortnikov N.S., Volkov A.V., Galyamov A.L., Vikent’ev I.V., Aristov V.V., Lalomov A.V., Murashov K.Yu. Mineral’nye resursy vysokotekhnologichnykh metallov v Rossii: sostoyanie i perspektivy razvitiya [Mineral resources of high-tech metals in Russia: current state and development prospects]. Geologiya rudnykh mestorozhdenii, 2016, no. 2(58), pp. 97-119.

34. The Most Expensive Contract in the Global Nuclear Industry. Russia and Egypt Signed Construction Contracts for El Dabaa NPP. Neftegaz.Ru, 11.12.2017 (In Russ.) Available at: https://neftegaz.ru/news/nuclear/204793-samyy-dorogoy-kontrakt-v-mirovoy-atomnoy-industrii-rossiya-i-egipet-podpisali-kontraktyna-stroitels/ (accessed 30.06.2018).

35. Presentation of the Russian Industrial Zone in Egypt. Russian Export Center, 19.02.2019 (In Russ.) Available at: https://www.exportcenter.ru/press_center/news/sostoyalas-prezentatsiya-rossiyskoy-promyshlennoy-zony-v-egipte/ (accessed 21.02.2019).

36. Our Aspirations for the Africa We Want. African Union. Available at: https://au.int/en/agenda2063/aspirations (accessed 03.09.2019).


Registered in System SCIENCE INDEX

For citation:
Abramova I., Fituni L. Russia’s New Strategy in the African Direction. World Eñonomy and International Relations, 2019, vol. 63, no. 12, pp. 90-100. https://doi.org/10.20542/0131-2227-2019-63-12-90-100



Comments (0)

No comments

Add comment







Indexed

 

 

 

 

Dear authors! Please note that in the VAK List of peer-reviewed scientific journals, in which the main scientific results of dissertations for the degree of candidate and doctor of sciences should be published for the “MEMO Journal” the following specialties are recorded:
economic sciences:
5.2.5. World Economy.
5.2.1. Economic Theory
5.2.3. Regional and Branch Economics
political sciences:
5.5.4. International Relations
5.5.1. History and Theory of Politics
5.5.2. Political Institutions, Processes, Technologies

 

Current Issue
2024, vol. 68, No. 3
Topical Themes of the Issue:
  • Bretton Woods 2.0: Towards a New Global Financial Architecture
  • Transformation of the EU Political Party System on the Eve of the 2024 European Election
  • South Asia in Regional and World Politics
Submit an Article
INVITATION FOR PUBLICATION
The Editorial Board invites authors to write analytical articles on the following topics:
  • changes in the processes of globalization in modern conditions
  • formation of the new world order
  • shifts in civilization at the stage of transition to a digital society

The editors are also interested in publishing synthesis articles / scientific reviews revealing the main trends in the development of certain regions of the world - Latin America, Africa, South Asia, etc.