President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has this evening held bilateral talks
with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the
ongoing second Russia-Africa Summit in the Russian City of Saint
Petersburg.
During the meeting, President Museveni outlined areas of cooperation
with Russia that include oil exploration, nuclear power energy, fertilizers,
the Pathogenic economy, electric batteries, and Space science that
would enable Uganda to have its own dedicated satellite.
H.E Museveni also proposed to his host, President Putin to discourage
by policy the importing of raw materials from Africa but instead work with
the African governments to add value to products at source as this
would transform the economies of the continent in a very short time;
from low middle income to high middle-income status.
President Putin on his part said that Russia remains committed to
strengthening cooperation between Russia and Africa in economic,
political, security, trade and humanitarian areas.
He said that Uganda remains one of Russian key partner and ally on the
African continent with the diplomatic relationship that stretched over 60
years.
He added that due to the good relationship under cooperation trade
between the two countries has increased 5 time in the last 6 months

compared to last year. He said that the Russian government was to
double the education scholarships to the Ugandan students and up two
modern mobile laboratories that can diagnose many diseases including
epidemic ones.
President Putin further said that he was happy that Uganda and Russia
have close positions on the international arena that he said is based on
commitment to shaping a just world that is accommodative to everyone
and expressed happiness that Uganda was to chair the non-allied
movement.
The meeting was attended by Foreign Affairs Minister Jeje Odong,
Defense Minister Bamulangaki Sempijja and Health Minister Jane Ruth
Aceng among others.
Meanwhile, the two-day Russia–Africa Summit that kicked off today is
the highest-profile and largest-scale event in Russian African relations,
aimed at bringing about a fundamentally new level of mutually beneficial
partnership to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
The goal of the event is to promote efforts to strengthen comprehensive
and equal cooperation between Russia and African nations across all
areas of society including politics, security, economic relations, science
and technology, and the cultural and humanitarian spheres.