RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Guinea on Monday on his latest visit to west Africa.

The region has seen a number of coups and widespread discontent with former colonial powers such as France and the influence of the United States.

Mr Lavrov has visited the African continent several times in the past couple of years as Russia strengthens trade ties with the continent’s 54 nations.

He met with his counterpart from Guinea, Morissanda Kouyate, according to Russia’s foreign ministry. 

Guinea’s government said the meeting was to discuss areas of mutual co-operation, without elaborating.

Mr Lavrov travelled to the Republic of Congo late on Monday evening where he is due to meet President Denis Sassou N’Guesso in the city of Oyo, according to an official communique from Brazzaville. 

It wasn’t clear which other countries were on his itinerary later this week.

Guinea has been ruled by the military since 2021. 

Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya seized power saying he was preventing Guinea from slipping into chaos and accusing the previous government of broken promises. 

In February, military leaders dissolved the government without explanation, saying a new one will be appointed.

Colonel Doumbouya has knocked back attempts by the West and other developed countries to intervene in Africa’s political challenges, saying Africans are “exhausted by the categorisations with which everyone wants to box us in.”

Several West African nations including Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have had coups that installed military governments. 

They have severed or scaled back long-standing military ties with Western powers in favour of security support from Russia, and sought to establish public control of natural resources formerly exploited by Western companies.

Mr Lavrov visited Mali early last year and pledged military support if necessary. 

Last year he also visited South Africa to attend a meeting of the Brics bloc nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 

He also visited the East African nation of Kenya, and toured north Africa later last year in an effort to strengthen ties as the influence of the former colonial powers continues to wane.

In Niger, Russian military trainers arrived weeks after the former pro-Western ruler was ousted last year.