On September 16, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will have a meeting with Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Workneh Gebeyehu, who will be in Russia on a working visit on September 15-16.

It is expected that a substantive discussion of the situation in East Africa will be held as well as an exchange of views on a number of items on the international and regional agenda. Special attention will be paid to resolving conflict situations in the Horn of Africa. It is also planned to touch upon bilateral cooperation between Russia and the IGAD in the humanitarian sphere and personnel training in light of the Russia-Africa Summit outcomes (Sochi, October 23-24, 2019).

IGAD includes eight East African countries, namely, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, and was founded in March 1996 on the basis of the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development, which has been in existence since 1986. The goals of IGAD are to promote peace, security and stability, regional cooperation, economic integration and development of its member states.