Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a media question at a joint news conference following talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, African Integration and Guineans Abroad Morissanda Kouyaté, Conakry, June 3, 2024

Question: What is the goal of your visit to Guinea?

Sergey Lavrov: The Russian Federation and the Republic of Guinea have a long-standing friendship. Our country (then the Soviet Union) signed an agreement on diplomatic relations with Guinea in 1958, when Guinea gained independence as one of the first countries to break free from the colonial yoke.

Today, as we drove from the foreign ministry to a meeting with Interim President of Guinea Mamady Doumbouya, my friend Morissanda Kouyaté took us on a tour of the city. He showed us what the Soviet Union had built here, including a university, a stadium, a hospital and infrastructure facilities.

Russia continues to support Guinea’s economic development. Russian companies such as RUSAL and Nordgold are not only working in their primary areas of activity here, but are also implementing a number of social projects. They have built a new hospital and established a research centre, which helped Guinea combat the spread of the Ebola haemorrhagic fever epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, and are now involved in preventive measures.

We are helping in the training of Guinean professionals and have approved hundreds of scholarships for them. Guineans learn civilian professions at our universities and also study at our defence and interior ministry schools. We also train their medical doctors, who help fight the spread of infectious diseases.

We are promoting our military-technical cooperation to help Guinea strengthen its defence capability.

We have a rich bilateral agenda, and we are also working jointly on international platforms, including the UN, and maintain cooperation with the African Union.

Two Russia-Africa summits have been held. Following the second summit, held in St Petersburg in July 2023, it was decided to establish the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum at the level of foreign ministers. It will be held for the first time in Sochi in November 2024.

You asked about the goal of my visit, and I have replied with a brief overview of our agenda. Our main goal is the positive development of relations. I would like to note that many Western “partners” visit African countries to demand that they sever relations with Moscow or Beijing.

Russia never makes such demands. We do not accept or resort to the language of blackmail and ultimatums. We have a positive and mutually beneficial agenda, which we have reaffirmed during our meetings with Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, African Integration and Guineans Abroad Morissanda Kouyaté and Interim President Mamady Doumbouya.