Guinean president to make state visit to Russia on Wednesday

Guinean President Umaro Sissoco Embaló will make a state visit to Russia on Wednesday at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin , a source from the Bissau government told Lusa on Friday.

According to the source, it is the first state visit of a Guinean President to Russia .

The highlight of the visit will be a “closed-door meeting” that Umaro Sissoco Embaló will have with Vladimir Putin and, then, “the exchange of notes” on areas of cooperation between the two countries , the same source added.

The source pointed out the areas of research and possible extraction of mining resources, underground and in the Guinean sea, namely oil, gas, phosphates, bauxite, heavy sand and fishing, as topics of conversations between Umaro Sissoco Embaló and Vladimir Putin.

The Guinean President is also expected to discuss with Putin the training of the country's staff in Russia and the acquisition of maritime surveillance and inspection equipment , the same source added.

Since he became President of Guinea-Bissau, Sissoco Embaló has traveled to Russia on several occasions at the invitation of Vladimir Putin, with whom he had a “long telephone conversation” on January 23rd about the international geopolitical situation and bilateral relations.

The Guinean President had already been to Moscow in May 2024, as Putin's guest at the Victory Day celebrations.

Embaló was also in the Russian capital in July 2023, at the Russia – Africa summit.

In October 2022, Umaro Sissoco Embaló visited Moscow and Kiev, Ukraine, in his capacity as acting president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), having spoken with Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky about ending the war that the two countries have been fighting since February of the same year.

Embaló discussed international geopolitics and bilateral relations with Putin

Last December, the Russian company Russal granted 70 scholarships to young Guineans to study in Moscow in various areas related to Natural Resources.

Russal, which will mine bauxite in eastern Guinea-Bissau , has also expressed interest in helping the African country build a railway line and a port in the southern town of Buba.

The Kremlin press service said today that the agenda of the meeting between Putin and Sissoco Embaló will include discussions on the prospects for developing cooperation between Russia and Guinea-Bissau in various areas, as well as addressing current issues on the international and regional agenda.

In the news about the Guinean President's state visit, the Russian agency TASS emphasizes that the two countries “maintain regular communication”, recalling the telephone conversation between Putin and Sissoco Embaló in January, the visit made by the latter on May 9, 2024 to Russia for talks with the Russian leader and the trips he made in 2022 and 2023.