The 2nd Russia-Africa Summit enshrines the principle of participation limited to African states recognised by the UN

The 2nd Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg has invited only those African states that enjoy official recognition, which shows that Russia unequivocally enshrines the principle that only African nations recognised by the United Nations (UN) are allowed to participate. 

Russia has invited to this conclave all African states with which it has bilateral relations and which are officially recognised by the UN, leaving out of the picture the Polisario Front, which represents the self-styled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) that has no official recognition in the international arena in general. Russia only extended an invitation to recognised states despite pressure from countries such as South Africa and Algeria, which are closer to the Polisario Front and which, as the official Moroccan news agency MAP indicated, have abused their friendship with Moscow to impose the Polisario Front's participation in the summit. 

Russia's decision, taken for the second time in a row after the first summit, is not a one-off position, as it confirms a trend of applying an unequivocal principle of participation restricted to UN-recognised African states, surrounded by all the legal and diplomatic guarantees governing the organisation of this summit.

This is confirmed by all the documents adopted at the end of the summit, in particular the four declarations and the action plan, which clearly and unequivocally enshrine the participation format.

Indeed, the introductory paragraph of all these official documents uses the following formula: "We, the heads of state and government of the Russian Federation and the African states recognised by the United Nations (in other words, the Russian Federation and the African states) and representatives of the African Union and leading African integration organisations".

This principle, solemnly enshrined in the official working documents of this major Russian-African meeting, clearly and definitively establishes that only the 54 UN-recognised member states of the African Union are members of this summit.

The decision taken by Russia contrasts decisively and unequivocally with that taken by the European Union, which, under the French presidency, had invited, in violation of international law, the leader of the Polisario Front to the EU-African Union summit in Brussels in February 2022.

Moreover, as MAP news agency reported, the questionable and debatable presence of the Polisario Front militia leader undermined the seriousness of this important meeting and provoked the bewilderment and disapproval of many of the countries present, outraged by the fact that the EU tolerated the participation of this individual, who has been indicted by several European courts for war crimes and human rights violations.

The EU, which considers Morocco a strategic and privileged partner, allowed the presence of a leader totally rejected by the Moroccan kingdom. Although neither its institutions nor its member states recognise the latter, the EU paradoxically consented to offer a folding seat at the Brussels summit to a notorious criminal who has denounced the ceasefire agreement signed under UN auspices and threatens Morocco's security and, beyond that, peace and stability in the EU's immediate neighbourhood, as MAP itself noted.

The EU is jealous of the territorial integrity of its member states in the face of separatist pressures that it never tolerates, and it should be equally jealous of the security and stability of Morocco, which it rightly considers a privileged strategic partner. In other words, firmness and intransigence on matters of principle is a choice that pays off. Several of Morocco's partners have made this choice. Russia, which took the plunge in 2019, stands firm and honours its commitments.

In recent years, Morocco has received the support of many important countries, such as the United States, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Spain, to defend its territorial integrity, thus backing the North African country's proposal for Western Sahara, which envisages broad autonomy for the Sahrawi territory under Moroccan sovereignty while respecting UN resolutions. The Polisario Front, which advocates holding a referendum on independence for the Saharawi people, has less support on the international stage, including that of Algeria, a major regional political rival of the Moroccan kingdom.