{"id":6029,"date":"2022-03-08T08:33:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T23:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=6029"},"modified":"2024-01-07T08:36:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-06T23:36:12","slug":"traditional-ties-earn-russia-african-countries-silence-in-critical-un-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/news\/traditional-ties-earn-russia-african-countries-silence-in-critical-un-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Traditional Ties Earn Russia African Countries’ Silence in Critical UN Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 \u201cIf you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.\u201d Those were the prophetic words of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, recalled now by influencers on social media pressing South Africa to cut or reduce old \u201cfriendly ties\u201d with Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But backing away from a long political and economic relationship with Moscow will not be easy. The eastern European nuclear power has already begun to call in the debt earned from years of anti-colonial and anti-apartheid support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing recently on the South African news site, iol.co.za<\/a>, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in South Africa extolled the \u201ctraditionally friendly ties between our countries which date back to the struggle against apartheid.\u201d They cited visits to the USSR in the 1920-30s by prominent ANC members, stalwarts of revolution such as Josiah Gumede, Moses Kotane and John Beaver Marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly in Ghana, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a personal letter to President Nana Akufo Addo congratulating him on the country\u2019s 65th independence anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlease accept my sincere congratulations on the occasion of the National Holiday of the Republic of Ghana!\u201d Putin addressed the Ghanaian leader. \u201cThe relations between Russia and Ghana are traditionally of a friendly nature. I am convinced that further development of a constructive bilateral dialogue and partnership meets the interests of our peoples, contributing to the peace and security on the African continent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa\u2019s hesitation to speak out at a recent UN vote against Russia\u2019s unprovoked invading and bombing of Ukraine, may be linked to their Cold War ties. A more significant factor is Russia’s huge military footprint on the continent,\u201d writes Will Brown, Senior Associate at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than half of African nations have military cooperation agreements with Russia\u2014the largest exporter of arms to sub-Saharan Africa. All Ethiopia\u2019s jetfighters were supplied by Russia while Uganda\u2019s combined force of five Mig21s and Sukhoi30s were also Russian supplied. Fifteen of Uganda\u2019s 20-strong fleet of combat helicopters were also Russian supplied. Sudan has 35 Russian jetfighters and 67 helicopters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the UN vote, 17 African countries refused to condemn Russia’s imperial ambitions in Ukraine. Another seven African countries refused to vote at all. Their leaders are all authoritarian or dictatorial with little regard for human rights abuses by their security forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But openly collaborating with Russia for the near future will carry significant reputational costs, warns Joseph Siegle, research director for the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington. \u201cAs the human costs from Russia\u2019s unprovoked war mount, ties with Russia will become even more problematic.\u201d [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 08 March 2022]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: Russian-made Su-30K fighter jets sold to Ethiopia. Source: Horn Affairs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) \u2014 \u201cIf you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.\u201d Those were the prophetic words of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, recalled now by influencers on social media pressing South Africa to cut or reduce old \u201cfriendly ties\u201d with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,16,93,32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"category-news","9":"category-politics","10":"category-regions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6030,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions\/6030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}