South Africa is interested in strengthening relations with Russia
Russian Foreign Minister, Serghei Lavrov in a meeting with his South African counterpart
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has sent senior representatives to Russia for a “working visit” with President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, including “discussions on a readjustment of the world order”, it said on Saturday. “This visit is in response to an invitation from the United Russia Party, the largest Russian political party and a long-time ally and friend of the ANC,” the South African party said in a statement. It “includes discussions on a readjustment of the world order to reverse the consequences of neo-colonialism and the unipolar world that prevailed before,” the ANC said. South Africa has been criticized since the beginning of the war in Ukraine for its proximity to Moscow. Pretoria maintains that it respects a “neutral” position and refuses to join Western calls to condemn Russia, explaining that it wants to promote dialogue. The southern African country is to host a BRICS summit in August, which will bring together Brazil, China, India, and Russia, while the Hague-based International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin for war crimes in March. The visit of the ANC representatives, which started on Thursday, will end on Sunday. The delegation is led by a member of the all-powerful executive committee of the party, Obed Bapela. South Africa hosted naval exercises with Russia and China off its coast in February, raising “concern” on the international stage. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov paid an official visit to Pretoria in January. The ties between South Africa and Russia date back to the apartheid era, with the Kremlin supporting the ANC in its fight against the racist regime.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Pretoria as part of an African tour, his second since the invasion, which will also reportedly take him to Botswana, Angola, and Eswatini. Diplomatic analysts told CNBC that the tour primarily represented an assertion of Russia’s “non-isolation,” projecting a message that, despite Western sanctions and efforts to ostracize it from the global stage, key strategic alliances remain in place. On Feb. 24, 2022, shortly after the Ukraine invasion, South Africa urged Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukraine. Since then, however, the tone has changed. South Africa was one of 15 African nations to abstain from the subsequent U.N. vote in March to condemn Russia’s war of aggression. In a joint press conference alongside Lavrov on Monday, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said it would have been “simplistic and infantile” to demand Russia’s withdrawal during their meeting and alluded to the “massive transfer of arms” that has since occurred from Western powers to support Ukraine’s military efforts. Pandor also lauded the “growing economic bilateral relationship” between Pretoria and Moscow, along with “political, economic, social, defense, and security cooperation.” She emphasized the multilateral responsibilities of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) bloc of leading emerging economies in a changing global landscape. South Africa will host the BRICS this year, and its ruling African National Congress (ANC) has suggested Pretoria could use the chairmanship to push for the admission of new members to expand the bloc’s presence, challenging the dominance of global superpowers. “The current global geopolitical tensions clearly signal the need to create institutional mechanisms that will have the stature form and global trust to promote and support global peace and security — BRICS should play a proactive role in emerging processes and ensure it is part of a redesigned global order,” Pandor said Although she called for the war to be “brought to a peaceful end through diplomacy and negotiations,” there was no direct condemnation of the invasion.
By Cora Sulleyman
