9 Comments

Matt, your articles should be on the desk of every member of Congress. Then they would get a much clearer picture of the world.

Expand full comment

Brilliant. This gives me enormous hope. I will share widely.

Expand full comment

Will the Pan-African Payments and Settlements System release the 14 countries held hostage to the African franc, Matt? I remember that they're not allowed to create their own currency for internal trade and that their profits from foreign sales are held in the French treasury--currency colonialism as I call it in my book.

Expand full comment
author

One step at a time. The key is to get some momentum on big game change and highly transformative projects. The mechanisms to get the jobs done will manifest in due course

Expand full comment

You write the next Russia Africa Summit is to be held in Addis this year

Tass reports- https://tass.com/politics/1483291

« Russia and African countries work on second Russia-Africa summit agenda — Lavrov

The second Russia-Africa summit will be held in Russia in 2023 »

Lavrov added at the SCO meeting in Tashkent July 27

« African countries (and not only them) and our other interlocutors (we spoke with our SCO colleagues yesterday and today) are well aware that any of the members of the international community who act in a way that is undesirable to the Americans or that causes their rejection may be subject to sanctions. This idea is firmly entrenched in everyone's mind. How do you help with that? Today we agreed that we will submit proposals for consideration by the leaders on specific actions to switch to settlement in national currencies. I think everyone will be thinking about it now. Africa already has a similar experience: common currencies in some subregional structures, which, nevertheless, by and large, are tied to Western ones. From 2023, a continental free trade zone will begin to function on the African continent. The logical step would be to back it up with currency agreements. I think this process will definitely go.... »

Expand full comment
author

Thanks. The schedule had changed at some point, and I had used an older article announcement

Expand full comment

The original summit was held in 2019, it was planned that subsequent summits were to alternate every two years between Russia and Africa, only no agreement was found for 2021, even if sporadic ‘announcements’ were made

The SMO changed everything - both sides are now aware of what is at stake – hence 2023 and in Russia

So Lavrov's comments on currency- in West/Central Africa the cfa is a burden, long recognised as such and the object of various feeble attempts at revolt

Suddenly the cfa seems a paper tiger – in his remarks about currency reform in Africa Lavrov carefully ignores the standard central bank ploys in play now for over a generation, which aim to replicate an impoverished version of an euro without a Germany ; the latest of which, PAPSS, is operated by a New York ‘global payments’ company, talked up by the usual suspects, from Carnegie to Blair

Expand full comment

Well, a month's worth of good news in one posting! That is a big breath of fresh air.

It reminds me very much of the North American-Russian rail hopes of the 1800s. It would be revolutionary in the best ways.

Expand full comment

Matt,

think it was Congo Brazzaville, and not DRC, that Mr Sergey Lavrov visited.

Expand full comment