... peacemaker and asserting the country’s great-power ambitions.
Africa’s “sandpit” of ideas
In June 2023, President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa unexpectedly came forward with his peace plan. On June 16, a group of African representatives from South Africa, Senegal, Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Zambia, the Comoros and Egypt paid a special visit to Kiev and then to Russia, where they
presented
a ten-point draft plan for the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. It should be noted that the promulgated proposals are not characterized by clarity and detail, representing a set of principles and good wishes on the need ...
... shown interest in cooperating with the block, there is a need to create a platform for regional integration arrangements led by the BRICS economies. Each BRICS core member is a key player in their respective regional trade blocks – India in BIMSTEC, Russia in the Eurasian Economic Union, South Africa in the African Union and the AfCFTA, Brazil in MERCOSUR, and China in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). All these regional blocks have already featured in the outreach activities of BRICS, with a common platform for these arrangements ...
...
The meeting focused on the issues of preparation for the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit, the peace initiative of African countries to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, South Africa's role as the BRICS chair, and topical issues of bilateral relations between Russia and South Africa. The diplomat from South Africa was informed about the current RIAC projects on the African vector of research.
... currencies in reserves is their high volatility. The basket mechanism of the BRICS reserve currency will allow for reducing some of this volatility by averaging out the exchange rate dynamics of currencies that follow different market trends. If the currencies of Russia, South Africa, and Brazil follow the commodity cycle, the opposite is true with respect to commodity importers such as India and China.
The potential for utilizing the new reserve currency in the global economy is considerable, particularly ...
... turmoil, could cause a collapse of the ANC’s approval ratings on the eve of elections, and then the government would have to become a coalition government at best, for the first time in South Africa’s modern history.
For bilateral relations between Russia and South Africa, such an outcome would indicate a need for greater flexibility. Right now, the two sides express satisfaction about the growing contacts between the ANC and
United Russia
as the two ruling parties—yet, engaging other influential forces ...
... COVID-19 pandemic. While initially considered a club of the most dynamic economies, the union of five countries has become internally highly heterogeneous. China and India continue to vie with each other as leaders of economic growth, while Brazil, South Africa and Russia have witnessed a systemic crisis since the mid-2010s, when the fall in GDP alternates with stagnant growth. Economic difficulties in Brazil and South Africa have led to a change of elites. The new leaders have sought to critically rethink their ...
... is one of the few leaders who made accusations against NATO and did not succumb to the enormous collective pressure of the Western nations
Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has put to test the traditionally friendly relations between Russia and South Africa. The events in Ukraine have acquired a wide international resonance, with many nations publicly discussing the hostilities. South Africa, as a projected continental leader, BRICS member and the only full-fledged African participant to the ...
... Asia-Latin America Cooperation), where the country could take the lead.
Brazil confronted serious political and economic crises in the mid-2010s, which could not but affect the dynamics of BRICS as a whole, a trend coupled with economic slowdowns in Russia and South Africa. Many economists have noted that the key challenge for the Brazilian economy at the time was the low productivity, which could be solved by a serious modernization, including through attracting FDI in technology. The new elites, upon coming ...
... case of China; and East African countries in the case of India. It would seem that the Russian leadership is being cautious in this respect and is looking into the possibility of forming two test groups: large African countries (Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa) and a group of unstable Sahel states (the Central African Republic and Sudan). Time will tell whether this approach can help Russia come up with an African strategy [
13
].
In the end, diversifying its foreign political and trade contacts is a priority for Russia in the current situation. Now is the perfect time for Russia to return to Africa, as well as to revise its goals ...
... of NDB can easily expand the remit of the bank by entering trade finance and project finance between these six countries alone. The bank could ask its shareholders to deploy and commit some of their gold reserves (abundant resources and gold mines in Russia, Iran, and South Africa) to this new currency to accelerate its credibility and uptake among these six countries.
Lora Chkoniya:
Fighting the Trend: How Africa is Uniting Amidst the Global Retreat from Multilateralism
Iran would sell oil in Resolve to China, China ...
