Mozambique is turning to an old ally as it looks to diversify its fossil fuel partnerships, with the nation’s top diplomat meeting with Russian companies in Moscow, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reports.
After a meeting with her Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, Mozambican foreign minister Maria Santos Lucas told press that the two countries are working together to further strengthen political and diplomatic relations, “but also to improve and consolidate economic and commercial aspects.”
Santos thanked Lavrov for building a “bridge” that allowed the Mozambican delegation to meet with some Russian companies in the oil and gas exploration sector to “enable them to participate in Mozambique.” These companies, like many others from around the world, would be operating in Mozambique’s hydrocarbon-rich north, an area that has been plagued by a terrorist insurgency since 2017.
Santos noted the presence of foreign troops in Cabo Delgado, the centre of the conflict, and highlighted the contributions of troops from Tanzania and Rwanda, the latter of which receives support from the European Union.
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Santos also thanked Russia for its longstanding defence cooperation, including training Mozambican military personnel on its territory. “Russia provides unconditional support in the north of the country, in the province of Cabo Delgado”, Santos noted. For his part, Lavrov told press that Russia “remains open” to further cooperation in the defence sector, affirming their “readiness to consider all requests from our Mozambican friends regarding the need to bolster their capacity.”
If Russian companies do elect to invest in Cabo Delgado, such cooperation could be critical to guarding against security threats. French energy giant TotalEnergies abandoned its own US$20 billion LNG project there back in 2021, after a brutal, days-long assault killed at least 55 employees, according to independent reporting.
Four years later, Total is eager to restart operations, saying the security situation has improved greatly even as it takes extreme measures to close itself off from another attack.
Santos “presented ongoing projects aimed at overcoming the threats that persist in the northern part of the country, especially in Cabo Delgado, focusing on normalizing the situation and facilitating efforts to create conditions for the people to return to peaceful lives,” Lavrov told reporters.
