Abimbola Akosile With Agency Reports
23 June 2009
Lagos — Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, is billed to commence a four-nation tour to Nigeria and three other African nations today; in a bid to boost Russia's global influence and vie with China and the U.S. for control of energy and resources. The four African countries are Egypt, Nigeria, Angola and Namibia.
According to a Bloomberg report, Medvedev is expected to sign an agreement with Nigeria to allow commercial deals in the nuclear industry between the two countries. Russia is also said to be mainly interested in participating in Nigeria's uranium industry.
The Russian president, who will visit Egypt first before Nigeria, is to be accompanied by Energy Minister, Sergei Shmatko; chief executive officer of Rosatom Corp., Sergei Kiriyenko; and CEO of Russia's diamond monopoly ZAO Alrosa, Sergei Vybornov.
Medvedev's trip, the first to Africa by a Russian head of state in more than three years, comes amid diplomatic offensive that saw the president host three summits in three days last week, including the first meeting of leaders from the so-called BRIC countries.
His visit to Nigeria, Namibia and Angola are the first by a post-Soviet Russian Head of State. Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin, now prime minister, visited Egypt as president in 2005. One year later, Putin travelled to South Africa.
Energy is likely to dominate Medvedev's visits to Egypt, Nigeria and Angola, as Russia, the world's largest energy supplier, seeks allies among other producers. Companies including OAO Gazprom, OAO Rosneft, OAO Lukoil and OAO Novatek either have active projects in the three countries or seek to break into these markets, according to the Economy Ministry.
Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company, seeks to expand in Africa and will pursue joint projects with Italy's Eni SpA, Chief Executive Officer Sergei Bogdanchikov said on June 19.
"We have seriously overlooked Africa", said Alexei Vasiliev, director of the Institute for African Studies, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "Nigeria's trade with Russia is about $300 million a year, compared with $40 billion with the U.S. and $11 billion with China, he said.
Angola currently holds the OPEC presidency, while another member of the cartel, Nigeria, is Africa's biggest oil producer, with reserves of more than 30 billion barrels. Russia, which is not an OPEC member, was the world's largest oil producer in April after Saudi Arabia cut output in line with a cartel decision, according to Bloomberg data.
Russia, Egypt and Nigeria are members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, an organisation set up by 15 states to coordinate forecasts, investments and relations with consumers to defend their market interests amid volatile energy prices.
Nigeria in April selected 15 companies, including Gazprom, to participate in its natural-gas development plan aimed at satisfying local and foreign demand. Nigeria, which has the world's seventh-largest gas reserves at 187 trillion cubic feet, plans to spend $30 billion building domestic processing and transmission facilities to send gas across the Sahara Desert by pipeline to Europe.
Novatek, Russia's second-biggest gas producer, has exploration rights for an offshore gas field in Alarish in Egypt and said in May it would start drilling in the first quarter of next year.
Kiriyenko will accompany the president to Egypt and Nigeria, the first two stops on his tour. "We plan to take part in the tender for constructing nuclear reactors in Egypt," Sergei Novikov, a Rosatom spokesman, said.
Russia and Egypt signed an accord on nuclear power cooperation in March that allowed Russian companies to bid for reactor construction contracts.
Alrosa's Vybornov will accompany Medvedev to Namibia and Angola, the last two stops on his trip. In Angola, where it has operated since 1990, Alrosa has stakes in two joint mining ventures, Catoca and LUO-Camatchia-Camagico, and has said it will explore for diamonds, oil and gas as well as build hydropower plants.
Given the global crisis, "the company plans to focus on existing projects, such as Catoca," Alrosa spokesman Andrei Polyakov said.
In five years' time, competition will make African markets almost inaccessible for Russian companies, Vasiliev said.
The continent is becoming "the key region" for the world's largest consumers of mineral resources, including China and the U.S., according to Alrosa's Vybornov. China has been bolstering its presence in Africa 10-fold each year, he said. "Russia also wants to stall the relentless march of China across Africa," UralSib's Weafer said. "It will be a tough task."
Medvedev will meet his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama in Moscow next month before attending the Group of Eight summit in Italy.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Re:Russia's visit to Africa.
I am a British Nigeria and proud to be an African.
With regards to this visit to Nigeria by the Russian president I feel strongly that African countries are so gullible and ignorant about Russian politics.
This is a country that does not respect black people and the rule of law, to sign big contracts with such country is insulting. Europe and the US will be a good bet, the Niger Delta region will suffer more as a result.
The Russian regime is not about ethics and moral, the first super power to recognise and fail to condemn the oppressive Iran state.
I am not surprise that the African states chosen have something to offer, my advise to these non democratic African states is to aware of what is happening in Iran especially when you try to suppress people.
Africa will continue to be backward unless we learn from other developed countries, Brazil is a good example.
With all the intellectuals in Africa,we need to wake up and put an end to all non democratic,less ehical and corrupt African countries especially Nigeria.
Thanks Dola
It is obvious that you have a very strong personal agenda that is extremely circumscribed. Nations operate mainly on their personal interest, in other words what is best for themselves. Non of the countries you mentioned in the west are operating on the bases of pure philanthropy; all ecpect something in return. We in Africa must make sure we get the maximum in return. PERIOD. It makes no difference who we deal with. We must separate economic interest from the type of government we prefer. We must get away from stereotypes. Democracy is not a panacea in itself; any system with integrity, selflessness, common sense and the principle of "love thy neighbor as much as your love yourself " is better. We have not found that system .Let me remind you that there are many so called DEMOCRACIES including the great USA which lack these essential characteristics.So we need to stop proselytizing for the western hypocrites who tell us to, "do as I say not [necessarily] as I do".
Re:Previous Article by russ:
I do not have an agenda,currently live abroad and my politics is about fairness.When we talk about economic issues, morals and ethics come into play. The Europeans and the US are far from being perfect but a better alternative to the Chinese and Russians who fail to allow opposition within their political system.
We only need to look at Darfur,the Sudanese largest investor are the Chinese and they refuse to put pressure on the Sudanese government regarding the plight of the refuges.
With regards to Business partners, you are right that Nigeria should be able to trade with any country. My point is that as we do have alternatives to the Russian and Chinese with regards to our business aspirations.
These are the two major powers who find it difficult to criticize Iran because of the partnership they have with them..I must remind you that the EU has economic and diplomatic ties with Iran but they still came out to condemn the situation there.
African dictators will always have options and the issue democracy will be suppressed. All Africans should be able to have a voice with regards to their politics affliations.
Thank you
Mr British Nigerian
I think you have forgotten about the 2007 Africa-EU Smmit that took place in Portugal, allow me to refresh your memory:
The existing preferential trade agreements between the EU and the ACP countries was not compatible with WTO rules (it was was one sided guess who benefited from it hint it was not Africa). The Europeans sought to replace it with WTO-compatible Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) when they learnt about China's interest in Africa, however, in this instance the Africans were smart enought to reject the offer.
It is great that Africa has a choice of trading partners, China, Russia (the rouge EU country). We have traded with Britain, Portugal etc and what changes have we seen? You talk about Human Rights issues but have you forgotten about the killing during the Abacha regime of Saro Wiwa guess what company and country was involved, hint, name starts with "S" owned by the Dutch.
During Apartheid US and European countries freely traded with the Afrikans..
So yes the Europeans and US are not perfect but now we have options we need to let them know that we have the freedom to trade with who ever we want. They preach Human Rights but they themselves are guilty of breaching other people's Human Rights, look at the Iraq war and Guantanamo need I say more!!!
re:curious
You talk about Iraq war and guantanamo bay, without a doubt a serious breach of human right. I agree that Nigeria should be able to trade with any nation,my concern is with Shell atrocities in Nigeria, the Chinese and Russian will be worse for Nigeria.
http://www.zambian-economist.com/2008/05/chinas-impact-in-zambia-bbc-report .html.
I know this is a BBC report , we need to look at the companies we deal with before we enter into contracts.I still believe that there are companies around the world with ethics and morals that will benefit Africa and treat us like equal partners.
What we need to understand is that these countries need Africa with regards to our abundant natural resources.
That's my 2 cent.
See all comments (22).
Active Discussions: Medvedev Tours Africa