Munyonyo, Uganda — Uganda and the Russian Federation have reaffirmed their long-standing strategic partnership during the Third Session of the Uganda–Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation, held at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kampala.
The two-day technical session marks a significant milestone in the deepening bilateral relationship, focusing on the implementation of previous agreements and exploring new avenues of cooperation in key sectors including trade and investment, science and technology, education, agriculture, energy, health, and defense.
Both delegations expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved and reiterated their commitment to transforming dialogue into tangible actions that drive sustainable growth and technological advancement.
Stronger Ties Under BRICS Framework
Since officially joining BRICS as a Partner State on January 1, 2025, Uganda has gained increased access to the New Development Bank, enabling enhanced trade, infrastructure financing, and technology exchange with Russia and other emerging markets.
Trade volumes between the two countries continue to grow. Russia mainly exports cereals, paper, transport machinery, and industrial goods to Uganda, while Uganda’s agricultural and value-added products are gaining ground in the Russian market. Both nations are committed to diversifying and expanding bilateral trade for mutual benefit.
A Partnership Rooted in History
Diplomatic relations between Uganda and Russia date back to October 13, 1962, just days after Uganda’s independence. Russia was among the first countries to recognize Uganda’s sovereignty and has since remained a consistent development partner.
Recent high-level visits — including those by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ugandan Vice President Jessica Alupo — have reinforced the relationship and laid the groundwork for expanded collaboration. Regular dialogue between Presidents Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and Vladimir Putin continues to shape the strategic direction of this partnership.
Statements of Commitment
Ugandan Ambassador to Moscow, Moses Kizige, emphasized the enduring bond between the two nations:
“Russia and Uganda share a partnership grounded in mutual respect and a commitment to sovereign development. We take pride in the long-standing friendship between our peoples and look forward to expanding cooperation in trade, innovation, and scientific exchange. As Uganda celebrates its Independence Day, we reaffirm our unwavering support and warm congratulations to our Ugandan partners.”
Working groups under the Commission conducted in-depth consultations on enhancing cooperation in education, agriculture, health, industrial innovation, and scientific research.
During the Ministerial Segment, Uganda’s Foreign Minister Gen. Jeje Odongo and the Head of the Russian Delegation, H.E. Bella Cherkesova, signed a new framework agreement aimed at improving coordination and accelerating the implementation of joint projects.
Both delegations expressed gratitude for the hospitality and partnership spirit during the talks, agreeing that the successful session represents renewed momentum to promote peace, stability, and shared prosperity.
Uganda’s Vision for Cooperation
In his opening statement, Gen. Jeje Odongo highlighted the historical friendship between the two nations and Uganda’s ambitions for industrialization and economic transformation.
He underscored Uganda’s interest in Russian investment and expertise in energy production, agricultural mechanization, transport, digital infrastructure, and advanced scientific research, including space science and innovation.
“As Uganda pursues its quest for higher middle-income status, we seek Russian investment and expertise in key sectors to enable us to grow and transform our economy,” Odongo stated.
He also encouraged the Russian private sector to leverage Uganda’s strategic market position — within the East African Community’s 330 million population and the African Continental Free Trade Area’s 1.4 billion consumers — for trade and investment opportunities.
Historical Perspective
The session builds on the momentum of earlier diplomatic engagements. In July 2022, Sergey Lavrov made a landmark visit to Uganda, delivering a message from President Putin and discussing new geopolitical realities, food security, and bilateral cooperation.
Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening trade, education, healthcare, energy, transport infrastructure, and agricultural production, as well as coordinating positions on regional and international issues.
Uganda, currently chairing the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and Russia, as an observer, share common positions on international peace, respect for sovereignty, and building a polycentric world order based on the UN Charter.
Statement by Head of Russian Delegation
First of all, on behalf of the Russian delegation and on my own behalf, I would like to express my gratitude for the warm and cordial welcome extended to us in Uganda.
I consider it symbolic to hold a meeting of the Commission
on the eve of the Independence Day of the Republic of Uganda. As you know, our country has made a significant contribution to the independence of African States
Russia and Uganda have long-standing relations of friendship
and cooperation. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin met with President of the Republic of Uganda Yoweri Museveni on the sidelines of the first and second Russia-Africa summits.
In order to regularly “check the clock”, a new format of dialogue was created last year – a conference with the participation of the foreign ministers of African states and Russia. We are now preparing for the second meeting, which will take place in Cairo in November 2025. We look forward to the participation of the High Representative of Uganda in the upcoming forum.
Given our country’s desire to consistently develop trade, economic and investment cooperation with African countries, strengthening relations with Uganda is one of our priorities.
The high level of our political interaction creates good prerequisites for increasing trade and economic cooperation. We hope on creating favorable conditions in Uganda for Russian companies willing to participate in joint projects in your country. We note the successful activities of «Ural» and «Virtus Global Security» companies in implementing projects in Uganda. A number of Russian companies, in particular «NexTouch», Goznak JSC and the «Techno» design bureau, have started working on entering the Ugandan market.
For example «Techno» is considering the possibility of setting up an electric cable manufacturing enterprise in Uganda, and next year it will start training Ugandan citizens in relevant specialties on the basis of its Russian factory.
For us, the format of the Intergovernmental Commission is a key mechanism for coordinating our partnership. The Commission’s work makes it possible to achieve noticeable results more effectively.
Uganda is one of Russia’s most important trading partners on the African continent
Agricultural industry
- In 2024, the Russian-Ugandan trade turnover increased by 17 %. One of the key areas of cooperation is agriculture.
In order to deepen cooperation, we agreed to step up cooperation between the authorized bodies of the two countries in the field of veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance in terms of expanding mutual access of agricultural products to the markets of both countries.
In addition, during the IGC meeting, we agreed that the Ugandan side will prepare a list of companies with contacts to attract potential importers of Ugandan products and exporters of Russian products.
We are ready to distribute this list among business structures. I am sure that this will give an additional impetus to diversification and increase the volume of supplies.
Industry
- We know that the Ugandan leader is actively promoting the idea of industrializing the country. We believe that it is necessary to involve Russian companies that have rich experience and have modern technologies.
- The pharmaceutical market in Uganda is interesting to Russian businesses. JSC “BIOCAD” is actively increasing the supply of medicines to Uganda and is also in the process of obtaining registration certificates for medicines to combat cancer, autoimmune and genetic diseases.
ICT and Mass Media
- We emphasize the interest of Russian companies
in expanding cooperation in the field of information and communication technologies, including telecommunications, digitalization of public administration and the urban environment, automation of health and education systems, information security, and professional development. - It is not the first year that the Russian company «Virtus Global Security» has been working on the Ugandan market, which is implementing a project on digitalization of data in the field of transport by order of the Ugandan authorities. We hope that with the help of Russian experts, our Ugandan friends will significantly increase the level of road safety and improve control over the movement of vehicles.
- As you know, our companies have accumulated advanced competencies and are open to mutually beneficial cooperation with Ugandan organizations, including on the development of a national cybersecurity system.
- We note the positive effect of the interagency memorandum of cooperation signed in 2018, which laid the foundation for our core cooperation.
- The Russian side welcomes the readiness of the Ugandan partners to develop cooperation in the field of mass media. As you know, RT news programs are broadcast daily on the state-run UBC TV channel and, as far as we know, are popular with Ugandan audiences. We are ready to go further and increase cooperation in the areas of content exchange, organization of educational courses for employees and students of mass media, and holding expert events.
- We hope that our Ugandan partners will support the Center for African Studies at the Higher School of Economics in implementing a program to improve the skills of Ugandan Civil Servants in the field of digitalization.
- Several Ugandan government officials participated in the program. The acquired skills were highly appreciated by their management.
Education and science
- We consider it extremely important to expand cooperation
in the field of education. The Russian Government has granted 50 scholarships for the 2025/26 academic year for Ugandan citizens to study in Russian universities in civil specialties. We see that Uganda is effectively implementing quotas. Therefore, if necessary, we are ready to increase them. - We are pleased to note the work of the Open Russian Language Education and Training Center in Uganda. We are grateful to our Ugandan partners for supporting this initiative, which is being implemented in Kampala starting in 2023.
- We welcome the interest of Ugandan citizens in learning Russian. For this purpose, we actively use the opportunities of the portal “Education in Russian”, created as part of the activities of the Russian Language Council under the Government of the Russian Federation.
- We are following with interest the success of Makerere University, which in recent years has continued to be ranked among the leading universities in East Africa. A number of well-known Russian universities (HSE, MGIMO University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation) are interested in cooperation with the university. They are working on relevant agreements.
Healthcare
- We welcome the development of cooperation in the field of healthcare. We thank the Ugandan side for its assistance
in organizing the first international Russian-African conference on combating infectious diseases in the African region in Kampala in April 2024. - In February 2025, Rospotrebnadzor specialists provided assistance to Uganda in the fight against the Ebola outbreak: they handed over test kits and helped conduct research on this infection.
- We are ready to assist our Ugandan partners in developing a national anti-epidemic program to combat particularly dangerous viruses.
Sport
- We regularly invite Ugandan athletes
to participate in international competitions held in the Russian Federation. We are ready to step up our work in this area. - We thank Ugandan athletes for participating in the BRICS Sports Games held in Kazan in June 2024, as well
as in the international competitions “Ural Logistics Cup Voronovo” in July this year. - In November 2025, the International Forum “Russia – a Sports Power” will be held in Samara under the patronage of President Vladimir Putin. We invite the Ugandan side to take part in the forum.
Thanks to our meeting, I had the opportunity to see for myself the beauty of Ugandan nature. Unfortunately, I won’t have time to get acquainted with its most famous places – Murchison Falls, Ruwenzori Mountains, national parks. I am sure that your country could become a popular tourist destination for Russian citizens.
In this regard, I invite you to present your opportunities at the international travel forum “Travel” in 2026 in Russia.
As you know, Russia has been under severe sanctions for several years now. We are record holders in this regard – no country in the world has ever faced such pressure.
The countries that initiated these measures expected to literally set us back decades in development and exclude us from the technology development race. However, in practice, it turned out quite the opposite – and in a very short time we were able to fill the areas where we were import-dependent with our own solutions.
Here is just one example: in recent years, the Russian industry information technology has been developing at a record pace, and for over the past 5 years, it has grown more than other sectors of the economy.
We realized that the sovereignty of a state is not only the inviolability of borders. In the modern world, the lack of own solutions and technologies means colonial dependence on those countries that have them and promote them on a global scale.
The lack of our own products and industries in key sectors of the economy makes our countries unacceptably vulnerable. That’s why we focused on own production, own developments and solutions.
But speaking of borders, independence, territorial, technological, it is impossible not to mention the sovereignty of information. When the state can independently, without outside pressure, without imposing alien narratives and values, form its own information policy, regulate information flows, and create a safe information space for children and adults.
We would very much like to move with Ugandan partners in this direction together: to fight fake news together, which fill the information field of our countries today, together create a safe and independent space for our children, and together defend our sovereignty.