South Africa To Host Naval Drills With Russian And Chinese Warships Defying West

South Africa will host naval drills with Russian and Chinese warships off its east coast next month, which could further deteriorate relations with some of its biggest trading partners in the west.

Operation Mosi, which translates to "smoke," will take place from Feb. 17- 26.

This will be the second cooperative naval drill between the three BRICS nations.

In November 2019, South African seas hosted the inaugural 'Mosi' naval exercise, a trilateral naval drill between Russia, China, and South Africa.

Kobus Marais, the Democratic Alliance's shadow defense minister, has cast doubt on the reasoning for going ahead with the controversial plan, labeling it "another bad judgment, and an embarrassment."

He believes that by agreeing to this deal, South Africa will not come across as "neutral," but "favorable to one side."

"It can alienate us from important trade partners, the West," said Marais. "This is in the best interests of Russia," he added, as per IOL.

Disputes with the U.S., UK, and EU have already arisen as a result of South Africa's decision to permit sanctioned Russian boats to dock there despite international pressure to denounce Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Russia-Ukraine war is widely described as a turning point in international relations that destroyed the post-Cold War international order by many experts. As geopolitical tensions between the West and Russia worsen, the conflict is also significant in the global South, resurrecting non-alignment and autonomous foreign policy.

The war has revealed that many nations in the global South, particularly South Africa, prefer not to support the West.

President Cyril Ramaphosa attributed the conflict in Ukraine to NATO just a few days after the Russo-Ukrainian conflict erupted. "The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less, instability in the region," he said, as per Reuters.

Moreover, Ramaphosa also flatly refused to heed Western leaders' directives to criticize Russia.

This undoubtedly infuriated the U.S., which, in Oct 2022, issued a rare terror alert for Johannesburg's upscale Sandton neighborhood. The South Africans, however, did not at all react favorably to this. President Ramaphosa chastised the U.S. for issuing such a notice without consulting the government during a press conference.

"It is quite unfortunate the U.S. issued that type of warning without having any type of discussion with us," he said, as reported by African News.

"Any form of alert will come from the government of the Republic of South Africa, and, unfortunately, another government should issue such a threat as to send panic amongst our people."

While hosting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the first part of his trip to Africa, South African Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor criticized the West for sometimes treating Africa with a "contempt and bullying" attitude.

Pandor noted that, even if it wasn't initiated by Blinken, South Africa had come under pressure from those in the West to adopt its stance on Ukraine. "From some of our partners in Europe and elsewhere, there has been a sense of patronizing bullying --You choose this or else," she said.