The Putin pantomime
Some of the most powerful leaders in the world came to Sandton for the Brics summit. Then there was Cyril, who survived his first test in the big league
President Cyril Ramaphosa walked through the door, setting off a whirr of camera clicks. The pool of local and international photographers began yelling at protocol officials to get out of the way. Ramaphosa stopped and turned, wondering what the din was about.
It was not him the cameras were focused on, nor was it Chinese President Xi Jinping, who walked in behind him. By Thursday morning, Xi had been in South Africa for two days and had provided many media opportunities.
The money shot was the third person to stride through the doors: the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.
Up to the night before, it was uncertain if Putin would make the trip to Johannesburg for the 10th summit of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa group, Brics.
The Department of International Relations and Co-operation delayed releasing the official programme until the eve of the summit, because it could not establish the arrival times of the Russian and Indian leaders in advance. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was billed to speak at the Brics Business Forum on Wednesday afternoon, as was Brazilian President Michel Temer. But Modi instead addressed the Ugandan parliament as part of a tour in East Africa. Putin was not mentioned on the programme for Wednesday.
Modi and Temer arrived on Wednesday evening, skipping a dinner and cultural evening hosted by Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa got a consolation prize — former president Jacob Zuma showed up unexpectedly.
Xi, meanwhile, was the toast of the town.
He arrived the day before on a state visit, pledged $14.7-billion (about R195-billion) of investment in South Africa, facilitated a loan for Eskom and, judging by the chemistry between the two leaders, became Ramaphosa’s new BFF.
Howzit, China
The timing of the state visit just ahead of the summit meant that the Chinese were wooed and feted by their hosts. China has real economic muscle, is the undeclared big brother of the Brics community, and can go beyond the rhetoric about collaboration to put money on the table.
Xi certainly has the most distinct vision for how Brics could position itself to secure a competitive advantage in the world and is pushing the group towards new frontiers in technology, innovation, big data and artificial intelligence.
The Russians have taken note that they are no longer the flavour of the month — as they were when Zuma was president. They generally do not appreciate being upstaged.
On Wednesday night, the Kremlin tweeted a picture of a severe-looking Putin meeting members of Russia’s security council. This was in preparation for the Brics summit, the Kremlin said.
The people Putin was meeting included Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, secretary of the security council Nikolai Patrushev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin.
This is not really the cohort you would expect the Russian president to consult ahead of what is essentially a trade and economic conference. But
Russia is central in global political and security issues, and relations within the Brics community cannot exist in isolation from its dealings with the rest of the world.
Outside the fold of the G7 and Nato, Russia wants to capitalise on its membership of other multilateral forums. On the sidelines of the Brics summit, Putin met Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, current chair of the G20. South Africa was also the venue for Putin’s talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, another notorious titan with a complicated relationship with the rest of the world. Erdogan is styling himself as the Putin of the Islamic world, creating a super presidency, replete with human rights abuses and suppression of the media.
The geopolitics of the Arab world, particularly in relation to Syria and Iran, was likely to be the subject of their discussion, and probably the real reason for Putin’s meeting with his security council before he left for Johannesburg.
While Russia’s relationship with President Donald Trump’s administration has all the elegance of a drunken fling at a music festival, its relations with South Africa under the new president are also somewhat undefined.
That became painfully clear when Putin and Ramaphosa held talks on Thursday afternoon.
A black belt in being the boss
That morning, as Putin’s jet entered South African airspace, security and protocol officials began bristling at the Sandton Convention Centre in anticipation of the Russian security onslaught. An advance plane landed at OR Tambo International, carrying part of his extensive security contingent. A little while later the $390-million (R5-billion) custom-made presidential jet touched down. After greeting the welcoming party, Putin strode to his waiting limousine, yanking off his overcoat as he walked down the red carpet.
He had done the same with an impeccably tailored suit jacket when he arrived in Helsinki recently to meet Trump – clearly he likes to travel unconstrained.
In less than an hour, he walked behind Ramaphosa and Xi into the heavily guarded room at the convention centre and took his place on stage. Modi and Temer followed, and the five leaders faced the wall of photographers and cameramen for the Brics family portrait.
Heads of state holding hands and grinning to show camaraderie is obligatory at these events. But since Trump exposed international diplomacy for the farce that it is, it is a wonder anyone still bothers.
When Putin is in a room, it is difficult to pay attention to anyone else. At the Helsinki summit, Trump looked even more gawky than usual next to him. Trump’s inability to articulate whether Russia “would” or “wouldn’t” have interfered in the US elections possibly had something to do with the unnerving way Putin exudes power.
He sits in a distinctive way, a Napoleon-like pose with his legs apart, as a mark of authority. Though he looms larger than life in global affairs, Putin is a relatively small-built man. He moves lithely, perhaps as a result of his martial arts training as a child. He is a judo black belt and national master in Sambo, a Soviet combat sport.
Putin did his best to keep up appearances that the Johannesburg summit was a friendly bonding exercise between the five leading developing economies. He presented his mild Mona Lisa smile at all the photo opportunities, even though his military posture is unmistakeable and his resting position is to clench his fist.
Most of the presidents’ meetings were on an upper level of the convention centre. They do not mix with the hoi polloi — even though these are the most politically connected business people in the five countries. The showpiece of the Brics summit was the plenary at which the five leaders present their statements.
The room was set up to resemble the format of G7 and G20 meetings, with the heads of state sitting at a large circular desk in the middle, with their delegations of ministers and officials behind them.
When a selected group of journalists, photographers and camera people were ushered in, there was informal chatter among the respective delegations but not much cross-pollination. The language barrier must prove an impediment to comments about the weather.
When the presidents filed in from their closed meeting, the delegations fell silent and took their seats.
Power announces itself.
This was Ramaphosa’s first rodeo as the host of a major multilateral summit, and he seemed quite at ease. There were no awkward jokes or tripping over his tongue, the trademarks of his predecessor.
Just don’t mention ‘nerve agent’
But as with the day before at the Business Forum, Ramaphosa’s was a lightweight statement. It was Xi who presented a tangible vision for the fourth industrial revolution and who spoke as an international statesman confronting major geopolitical and trade issues. Xi is, of course, an invested party in the trade war with the US, and is seeking backing from his Brics partners to safeguard a rule-based multilateral trading regime and to reject protectionism.
Most of the Brics discussions are conducted by the phalanx of officials who meet behind the scenes, so the presidential summit is really much ado about nothing.
Putin, however, made a proposal that his counterparts enthusiastically adopted. He wants Brics to stop being the exclusive preserve of politicians and businesspeople and wants more citizen integration among the five nations. The details have yet to be worked out but what Putin proposed was to expand cultural, sporting and arts ties.
Up to now the main purpose of Brics has been to promote trade and investment. The establishment of a New Development Bank has been the main achievement and the community is working on setting up its own ratings agency.
But Putin seems to want free movement of people among the nations through what he called expansion of “cultural and humanitarian co-operation”. That proposal cannot be incidental to Russia’s international agenda.
Putin’s statement at the summit was somewhat ironic, considering the allegations of Russia’s interference in the affairs of other nations. It was as if Russia was on the receiving end of hacking and social media manipulation, not the chief perpetrator.
“The digital reality makes it especially important to ensure the safety and security of society, business and citizens. We are taking the necessary legislative measures and making every effort to ensure the development of an open, reliable and secure internet environment with strict observance of guarantees for the protection of personal data and privacy in the digital environment,” he said.
Ramaphosa and Putin signed a strategic partnership agreement focusing on co-operation in agriculture and water resources. It seemed to be the most innocuous areas of co-operation between the two nations. “Strategic cooperation” between South Africa and Russia was in full flight during the Zuma administration, particularly in the area of intelligence training and operations. It would be difficult, however, to find the supporting documents to explain what this was about.
It is now known that there was a commitment to a nuclear power programme, which Putin confronted Ramaphosa about in their bilateral.
Chernobyl? Sorry, not for us, thanks
Ramaphosa has an unflappable and cordial manner that can make turning down the most formidable person in the world seem quite casual. He was sitting across the table from Putin during a closed door bilateral when he told him that regrettably South Africa could not afford the nuclear programme. Affordability is not something often presented to the Russians as a reason not to do something. They perceived it as a smackdown.
Still, the show had to go on with everyone pretending to be comrades in arms. On Friday, the Brics jamboree continued with other African leaders joining in during an “outreach session”. Later, the leaders met the presidents of Jamaica, Argentina and Turkey in what is called the Brics-Plus Initiative.
One thing that was patently clear this week is that South Africa is a junior partner trying to play in the big league, and that its poor economic performance means it is likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. However this was the opportunity for Ramaphosa to choose his partners in the global power play and make it known that he really is in charge.
What he did not to do, however, was confront the threat South Africa faces of foreign interference in domestic affairs that could possibly impact on the elections next year.
But the fact that he did not turn into a blundering idiot when facing off with the most indomitable figure on the planet is perhaps an achievement in a week of high diplomacy.
Holding hands and grinning is obligatory at these events. But since Trump exposed international diplomacy for the farce that it is, it is a wonder anyone still bothers