Reality may be starting to dawn on the clay-footed would-be rulers of the world that the world might not conform to their underlying “zero sum” assumptions. On June 16, Reuters ran a headline which read, “As Ukraine Distracts, Russia and China on March in Africa,” written by veteran Asia desk reporter Peter Apps. “With Western nations heavily preoccupied with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine this year,” Apps wrote, “both Russia and China have been on the march in Africa—to the mounting concern of the United States and its European allies, worried their influence on the continent may be in serious decline.”
While Apps continued by rehashing tales of Russian mercenaries and China’s imagined military expansion on the continent, what really has the empire worried are the things not said, like the tremendous appreciation Russia got from African countries at the 25th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) over June 15-18, which attracted delegations from Algeria, the Central African Republic, Mali, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, not to mention guest country Egypt (the host of this fall’s COP27), and to which the SPIEF devoted an entire session.
Speaking at the Russia-Africa session, EAEU minister and economist Sergey Glazyev said: “Africa is one of the important promising areas [for Russia]. An intense partnership must be strengthened to bring our economies closer together. We have had extensive experience of cooperation with Africa since the Soviet era.” In comments covered by the Federal News Agency, Glazyev specifically referred to Central Africa, where he said that “between 2016 and 2019, turnover [trade] doubled from $41 million to $80 million,” urging Russia to further “strengthen its position.”
