South Africa defends planned military drills with Russia and China

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa’s foreign minister on Monday deflected criticism of joint military drills planned with Russia and China, saying hosting such exercises with “friends” was the “natural course of relations.”

Naledi Pandor made her comments during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was visiting South Africa 11 months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A South African official, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak, said Lavrov would afterward visit Eswatini, Botswana and Angola.

South Africa is one of Russia’s most important allies on a continent divided over the invasion and Western attempts to isolate Moscow because of its military actions.

Some opposition parties and South Africa’s small Ukrainian community have said that hosting Lavrov is insensitive.

South Africa says it is impartial on the Ukraine conflict and has abstained from voting on UN resolutions on the war.

It has close ties with Moscow, a friend of the governing African National Congress when it was a liberation movement opposing white minority rule, and will host a joint exercise with Russia and China on its east coast from February 17-27.

“All countries conduct military exercises with friends worldwide. It’s the natural course of relations,” Pandor, alongside Lavrov, told reporters in the capital, Pretoria.

The exercise will be under way on February 24, the first anniversary of what Russia calls its “special military operation.” Ukraine and its allies say Russia has launched an imperial land grab.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government has expressed a desire to mediate in the Ukraine conflict as a neutral party.

Pandor emphasized that although South Africa had initially called on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine unilaterally, that was no longer its position.

“To repeat that... to Mr Lavrov today would make me appear quite simplistic and infantile, given the massive transfer of arms [to Ukraine]... and all that has occurred [since],” she said.

South Africa has little trade with Russia but champions a worldview – favored by China and Russia - that seeks to undo perceived US hegemony in favor of a “multipolar” world in which geopolitical power is more diffuse.

Lavrov said the military drills were transparent and that Russia, China and South Africa had provided all relevant information.

The South African armed forces said last week the exercise was a “means to strengthen the already flourishing relations between South Africa, Russia and China.”