CONAKRY, Guinea, June 4, (AP): Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived Monday in Guinea on his latest visit to West Africa, where coups and growing discontent with traditional allies like France and the United States have contributed to some countries' shift toward Moscow.
Lavrov has visited the African continent several times in the past couple of years as Russia seeks support - or at least neutrality - from many of its 54 countries amid Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Lavrov met with Guinea's foreign minister Morissanda Kouyaté, according to Russia's foreign ministry. Guinea's government in a statement said the meeting was to discuss areas of mutual cooperation, without elaborating.
Lavrov was expected to arrive in the Republic of Congo late on Monday evening, where he was due to meet President Denis Sassou N’Guesso in the city of Oyo, according to an official communique from Brazzaville. It wasn't clear which other countries were on his itinerary later this week.
Guinea has been ruled by a military junta since 2021. Col Mamadi Doumbouya seized power saying he was preventing Guinea from slipping into chaos and accusing the previous government of broken promises. In February, military leaders dissolved the government without explanation, saying a new one will be appointed.
Doumbouya has rebuffed attempts by the West and other developed countries to intervene in Africa’s political challenges, saying Africans are "exhausted by the categorizations with which everyone wants to box us in.”
Several West African nations including Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have had coups that installed military juntas. They have severed or scaled back long-standing military ties with Western powers in favor of security support from Russia.