By Noela Ebob Bisong
President Biya has been invited to attend and share his experience during the first ever Russia-Africa summit to take place in Sochi in the month of October 2019. The invitation to attend the summit was presented last Wednesday, March 27 to the Head of state at the Unity Palace, during an audience he granted to the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Cameroon, Anatoly Bashkin.
According to the Russian state man, “This year the Russian Federation decided to organize some meetings of leaders of African States; the main event will take place in October”. He went on to explain that “I am here to hand to President Biya his invitation from his counterpart Mr. Putin. This invitation was accepted” and he went further that they are hoping “President Biya will bring his vision and experience to open a new page in the relationship between the Russian Federation and Africa in general, and Cameroon in particular”.
The meeting between Cameroon’s head of state and the Russian ambassador, which lasted for over two hours, presented them the opportunity to have an in depth discussion on possible ways to foster cooperation between the two countries.
In the course of the audience, discussions also focused on a wide range of bilateral cooperation issues, between the Russian Federation and Cameroon.
They both agreed that their mutually beneficial relations will grow stronger in years to come, in areas of common and critical interest, notably security.
As a matter of fact, information which filtered from the encounter between Biya and Bashkin had it that the President of Cameroon was comforted with the fact that the Russian Federation sympathizes with the challenges being faced by Cameroon, especially in terms of security.
It should be noted that Cameroon’s relationship with Russia has been growing stronger in recent times.