During his second trip to Africa, Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, met with Isaias Afwerki, the president of Eritrea, in Asmara. Lavrov’s goal was to increase global support for Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.
The trip comes after Lavrov met with government representatives in South Africa, one of his nation’s most significant continental allies, when he responded to accusations of joint naval exercises between Russia, China, and South Africa set for next month on Monday.
Yemane Meskel, the communications minister for Eritrea, said late on Thursday that the conversation focused on the dynamics of the conflict in Ukraine and the improvement of bilateral ties in the fields of mining, energy, information technology, education, and health.
Several African nations who have adopted a more unbiased position toward Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine have become partners of Russia.
African nations made up a sizable chunk of the abstentions at the UN General Assembly’s first resolution condemning Russian activities in March of last year. Syria, North Korea, China, Belarus, and Eritrea were the only five nations to vote against it.