Lavrov: Russia will help African countries control their own resource extraction

By Rhod Mackenzie

Russia will help African countries to gain independent control over the extraction and development of their resources. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in his address to the participants of the opening ceremony of the International Congress "Africa in Search of Solutions" at the St. Petersburg Mining University.

"Today the St. Petersburg Mining University offers a new level of scientific and educational interaction with Africa. "As an effective tool of our cooperation, the Russian-African Consortium of Technical Universities "The Subsoil of Africa" was formed," said Lavrov's message, the text of which was read out by the Director of the African Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Vsevolod Tkachenko. "I am convinced that the technical and managerial personnel trained as a result of this project will help African countries to ensure control over the extraction and development of their own mineral resources and effective state regulation in the field of environmental management."