The international Valdai Discussion Club is holding its first conference on Africa in St. Petersburg today, on the eve of the Russia-Africa Summit, which begins in the same city on July 27. A statement by the Club expressed the hope “that the recommendations and results of the Valdai Club conference will have an applied nature and will fall on the table of leaders on the eve of the summit,” because “most of the guests are involved in the process of foreign policy planning in their countries. The Valdai Club Conference will actually become the final synchronization of watches at the expert level in the run-up to the summit,” a statement by the club’s press service said.
More than 60 people from 15 countries had been invited to participate in the event, including guests from Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, and Zambia, as well as from China, India, and Russia.
