🌍 The Second Ministerial Conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum has successfully concluded in Cairo.

Over two intense days of work, the Russian delegation led by Sergey #Lavrov took part in more than 20 meetings and events. On December 19-20, the Russian Minister held bilateral talks with representatives of the following countries and organizations:

1. 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo
2. 🇧🇮 Burundi
3. 🇹🇿 Tanzania
4. 🇧🇼 Botswana
5. 🇬🇲 The Gambia
6. 🇳🇦 Namibia
7. 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea
8. 🇹🇬 Togo
9. 🇲🇷 Mauritania
10. 🇲🇼 Malawi
11. 🇸🇨 Seychelles
12. 🇷🇼 Rwanda
13. 🇪🇬 Egypt
14. 🇩🇿 Algeria
15. 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
16. 🇹🇳 Tunisia
17. 🇸🇸 South Sudan
18. 🌍 ECOWAS

Recap of the key events of the Second Ministerial Conference:

📄 Sergey Lavrov’s meetings with Egypt’s Leadership

📺 Sergey Lavrov’s address at the Plenary Session of the Conference

📺 Joint press conference of the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Egypt

📄 Joint Statement by the Participants of the Second Ministerial Conference

💬 Sergey Lavrov: It was a sincere pleasure for me to take part in the Second Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, which is being held for the first time on the African continent, in Egypt’s capital.

I would like to kindly thank our Egyptian friends for the excellent organization of the event, their traditional hospitality, and to congratulate them on the successful hosting of this Conference.

❗️ We have every reason to state that the conference has laid solid groundwork for high-quality preparations for the Third Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled for 2026. We will make every effort to ensure its successful holding.

Our attention was drawn to an article by Alan Howe published in The Australian on 22 December. We did not intend to overshadow the Christmas holidays for our Australian audience, but can no longer remain silent, as the publication is steeped in Russophobia, unfounded accusations and falsehoods.

In a conversation with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the author disregards several critically important issues and material facts related to the political and religious situation in Ukraine that in this context are unquestionably matters of public interest.

The first one is the deliberate actions by the neo-Nazi Kiev regime to ban and destroy the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in violation of the right to freedom of religion, human rights and international law. It includes criminal prosecution and physical abuse of the clergy, illegal takeovers of churches, persecution of millions of believers affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and Russia.

Secondly, Mr Howe fails to mention that during World War II the UGCC, which has a complex history, actively sent its priests to the 14th Waffen SS “Galicia” Division and openly supported Ukrainian Nazis from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Yet he features a photo of their present-day spiritual heirs from the neo-Nazi formation Azov (a terrorist organisation banned in Russia). The information about the origins and ideological typology of Ukrainian Nazism will help you determine for yourself whether Nazism truly does not exist in Ukraine, as Mr Howe and Mr Shevchuk claim.

Thirdly, the big lie is the so-called “hit list”, on which the unnamed Russian secret services allegedly keep Mr Shevchuk “and other heads of churches in Ukraine”. How can “the humble Ukrainian church leader” know so much about Russian secret services and their plans? Perhaps he confused the mythical “hit list” with the Ukrainian public website “Mirotvorets” (the Peacekeeper), which contains hundreds of names and personal data of people (including two-year-old children) whom the neo-Nazi Kiev regime considers its mortal enemies (some of them have already been assassinated by the regime).

There are many more outright slanderous and provocative statements concerning Russia and the ROC, which we do not consider ethical to reproduce here.

Beware: this article is a piece of low propaganda and irresponsible journalism. 

🇷🇺 Key foreign policy outcomes of 2025

#Outcomes2025

In 2025, Russia made a significant contribution to strengthening the foundations of a just multipolar world order based on international law and cooperation between countries. Decisive steps were taken to protect the country’s vital national interests on the external front, with a focus on the CIS countries and Eurasia.

This year marked the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory. Alongside its like-minded international partners, Russia reaffirmed its commitment to inviolability of the post-war world order and its foundation in the form of the full body of principles enshrined in the UN Charter understood as an indivisible and interdependent whole.

• In the Commonwealth of Independent States, 2025 was declared the Year of Peace and Unity in the Fight against Nazism.

• A solemn General Assembly session to commemorate WWII victims was held at Russia’s initiative at the New York UN headquarters in May. An annual resolution on combatting glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism co-sponsored by 44 countries was adopted in December.

• Comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Russia and China received a strong boost thanks to successful leader diplomacy by President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping and reciprocal visits to Moscow in May and to Beijing in September.

• After the new US administration came to the White House in January, political dialogue with Washington at the top levels was restored. During the Russia-US summit in Anchorage on August 15, understandings were reached that could form the basis for resolving the Ukraine conflict by addressing its underlying causes, including military threats to Russia created by NATO expansion and policies undermining the rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking populations.

• Relations with North Korea took on a new dimension, with the DPRK providing allied assistance in liberating the Kursk Region from Ukrainian militants and contributing significantly to creating proper conditions for the region’s return to peaceful life, in accordance with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty.

• A new stage in relations with Iran was marked by the signing in January and entry into force in October of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty.

• Tangible results were achieved in supporting integration processes in Eurasia.

• Within the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), priority tasks were identified for implementing the collective security strategy, steps were taken to strengthen the combat readiness of collective forces, and an anti-narcotics strategy through 2030 was approved.

• On December 14, at the initiative of Russia and other member states of the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the International Day for the Elimination of Colonialism in all its forms, and on December 4, the International Day for Combatting Unilateral Coercive Measures.

• Measures taken to protect Orthodox Christianity and other Russian religions and denominations created favourable conditions for the resettlement of foreign nationals, including from countries with unfriendly governments, to our country under the framework of the Presidential Executive Order On Providing Humanitarian Support to Individuals Sharing Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values.

• Efforts to combat the spread of untruthful information about Russia in foreign printed and social media intensified, including through cooperation with our international partners within the International Fact-Checking Network.

❗️ The firm defence of national interests in relations with the countries whose governments undertake hostile anti-Russian actions forced them to recognise the impossibility of inflicting on Russia a “strategic defeat on the battlefield” and led them to adopt a concept of an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Ukrainian theatre of operations.

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