Russia continues to make inroads across Africa, signing bilateral and commercial deals despite facing harsh sanctions by Western countries for launching a war against Ukraine in February.

“The sanctions that the NATO states have imposed on Russia for attacking Ukraine will find very few supporters in Africa,” Dr. Mustafa Mheta, head of the Africa desk and a fellow at the Johannesburg-based think tank Media Review Network (MRN), told Anadolu Agency in an interview.

This week, Zimbabwe and Russia committed to deepen and expand their bilateral relations during the fourth session of the Zimbabwe-Russia Intergovernmental Commission (ICG) on economic, trade, scientific and technical co-operation held in the capital Harare.

Local publication the Zimbabwe Mail reported Thursday that Russia’s Natural Resources and Environment Minister Alexander Kozlov proposed to Zimbabwe’s Mines and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando to engage Russian company Zarubezhgeologiya in work in the area of geological mapping in Zimbabwe.

Quoting Russian news agency Interfax, the publication further said that Zimbabwe also expressed a willingness to comprehensively consider Russian companies’ involvement in prospecting, exploration and development of deposits.

Meanwhile in April, Cameroon signed a strategic military deal with Russia, becoming the first African nation to do so since the Kremlin launched its offensive in Ukraine.

On Thursday, Russian Presidential Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov told Interfax that Africa has always been an important region for Russia from the point of view of foreign policy as well as trade and economic and humanitarian cooperation.