Russia’s trade with Africa is low and heavily concentrated in four countries: Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and fellow BRICS member South Africa. Intissar Fakir, a senior fellow and director of the Middle East Institute's North Africa and Sahel program, says that it makes sense for the four North African countries to want closer Russian ties too. Fakir noted that nobody has managed to get the North Africa economies to become more integrated and trade more with each other. He added that free trade could be attractive for North African countries that depend on imports of agri-food products. Fakir said the free trade area is unlikely to succeed, but "if anybody can do it, given the failure of everybody else, maybe Russia can.”

Source: The North Africa Journal August 19, 2023 12:27 UTC