Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Vladimir Putin will meet with Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki on July 28, RIA Novosti reports .

According to him, the heads of state spoke at a reception hosted in honor of the guests of the Russia-Africa forum and agreed to postpone the bilateral meeting from Thursday to Friday, July 28.

“We talked at the reception, and [the meeting] was rescheduled for tomorrow,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

On July 27, Eritrean Ambassador to  the UN Sophia Tesfamariam said that Africa was being used to promote the grain deal.

On July 16, the republic's ambassador to  Russia , Petros Tseggai , said that Eritrea hopes that Russian companies will take part in oil exploration in Asmara. He also stated that Asmara will continue military-technical cooperation with Russia without regard to Western countries, noting that the country has been under EU and US sanctions for 80 years.

Prior to this, Putin held a meeting with Isaias Afewerki, following which he announced the signing of a number of intergovernmental agreements between the Russian Federation and Eritrea on May 31.

Earlier, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy, in his article for  Izvestia , said that the desire of African countries for friendship with Russia is partly an attempt to join that “ark that will remain afloat when the whole world is swallowed up by the abyss.”