Second Russia-Africa Summit: 100 scholarships for Cameroonian students

By Ngombet Claudia

In his efforts to further strengthen mutually beneficial relationships between Russia and Cameroon, Russian President, Vladimir Putin announced about 100 scholarship opportunities for Cameroonians who are interested to pursue their studies in Russia, in the upcoming academic year.

The Information was released at a high-level meeting between Putin and the Cameroonian delegation to St. Petersburg, under the leadership of President Paul Biya.

Mr. Putin went further to note that Cameroonians have developed a growing interest in studying Russia as a foreign language which resulted in the creation of a Russian cultural center in Douala, in April, with over 150 learners enrolled at the moment.

It should be noted that the Russian Federation and the Republic of Cameroon have had bilateral relations for decades, since the year 1962 around education, security, health, agriculture, energy, mining, and technology.

President Putin also thanked Cameroon for the support given to Russia at the UN and wished for more trade ties with Cameroon especially as imports from Cameroon to Russia grew up to 17-fold, despite Russia’s exports decline, partly as a result of the ongoing crisis with Ukraine.

On his part, President Paul Biya, who was visiting Russia for the first time, thanked Putin for inviting him to the second Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Summit in St. Petersburg, on 27-28 July. He equally thanked Mr. Putin for his hospitality and the quality organization of the summit.

The event had in attendance thousands of participants from Africa the host country, with about 17 Africa Heads-of-states, and over 30 panel sessions addressing common issues affecting Russia and the African continent. One of such issues addressed in favor of Africa was the shipping of free grains of about 25,000-30,000 tons to the south, to fight the food security in Africa, caused by both natural and human factors.