In a decision that may further strain its relationships with some of its biggest trading partners, South Africa will conduct naval exercises with Russian and Chinese warships off its eastern coast next month.
The 17th to 26th of February will be the dates of Operation Mosi, which means smoke. With the US, UK and EU backing Ukraine in the conflict, South Africa’s reluctance to condemn Russia’s invasion and docking of sanctioned Russian vessels has already increased tensions. The country’s biggest opposition party questioned the wisdom of going ahead with the exercises.
“This gives the impression of not being neutral but being biased to one side. Clearly it can alienate us from other important trade partners, the west,” said DA MP Kobus Marais. “This is in the best interests of Russia,” Marais said, calling it “another bad judgment, an embarrassment.”
While the exercise follows a similar event in 2019, it comes about a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, an event that brought into the open South Africa’s close ties with Russia due to historical support for the African country’s liberation struggle and their joint membership of the BRICS group of nations.