How China’s and Russia’s clout is growing in Africa
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FILE PHOTO: China's Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar attend a BRICS foreign ministers' meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, June 1, 2023. REUTERS/Nic Bothma/File Photo
The wealthiest square mile in Africa is hosting a big international summit this week with a mixture of pride, relief, and a hint of unease.
Sandton – a glitzy banking district on the outskirts of South Africa’s increasingly dilapidated city of Johannesburg – is the venue for the latest meeting of the Brics group, an ambitious but amorphous bloc of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), united by a desire to challenge perceived Western dominance in global affairs. Dozens of other nations are queuing up to join.
The current wave of relief felt here in South Africa in relation to Brics can be explained by President Vladimir Putin’s recent decision to stay away from the summit.
Had he insisted on coming, South Africa would have finally had to clarify its position on whether it would carry out its international obligation to arrest Russia’s leader for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
