Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has concluded his four day visit to four African countries that took him to Egypt, Nigeria, Namibia, and Angola. This was his first official trip to the continent and the second in three years by a Russian president. While several energy, nuclear, and commercial agreements were signed, Russia sought to bolster its stragetic position on the continent vis-as-vis the new Asian powers of China and India and the old Atlantic powers of Western Europe and the United States.
Russia lost much of the clout enjoyed by the former Soviet Union across the continent during the Cold War. It is unlikely that it can regain its previous influence any time soon. Certainly, the country has much ground to cover and it wont be easy. Russia's trade with Nigeria, for example, is estimated at $300 million, while China's is $11 billion. Nevertheless, Russia's growing engagements with Africa ought to be welcomed as part of the pluralization of Africa's global linkages and presence. The following commentaries offer persectives from Russian, Egyptian, and Nigerian observers. PT Zeleza, Editor, The Zeleza Post
Russia's Plans for Africa By Irina Filatova
Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Africa this week is Russia's latest attempt to shift the global balance of power away from the west
Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev spent this week in Africa, visiting four countries, Egypt, Nigeria, Angola and Namibia. Russian official sources present the visit as purely economic, stressing that its goals are to assist Russian business and to develop mutually beneficial relations with African countries. The president is accompanied by a 400-strong business delegation, and a number of important economic agreements have been signed, particularly in the sphere of energy resources and nuclear power.
This seems logical. A number of big Russian companies, such as Alrosa, Rusal, Renova, Rosneft and Gazprom are either involved in Africa or are seeking deals there, yet Russia's trade with the continent falls far behind that of China or India, let alone the US. Russia's own enormous energy resources are located in areas that are not easily accessible, sparsely populated and have extremely unfriendly climatic conditions - so developing them would be a much costlier business than developing the same resources in Africa.
But historically, visits of Russia's (Soviet) heads of state to Africa always had a political agenda - for example the 1961 visit by Leonid Brezhnev to Ghana and Guinea and the 1977 visit of Nikolai Podgornyj to Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique. Each marked a new stage of Soviet involvement in Africa. Is Medvedev's visit completely different?
Not quite. There is, indeed, a serious business element to it - much more serious, in fact, than during the African visit of Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin three years ago. However, there is hardly any doubt that Medvedev's visit is at least as much about policy as it is about business - and perhaps much more so. It has to be considered in the context of Russia's final withdrawal from its negotiations to join the WTO, and the two summits that Medvedev hosted in Yekaterinburg - that of Bric countries and of the members of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation. The US asked to participate as an observer, but the request was not granted. All these moves are a sign of a new stage of Russia's policy of disengagement with the west and of its leaving western financial and economic space. This tendency has been developing for a few years, but now it has obviously reached a new active phase. During his second term as president Putin often spoke of the need to transform the global economic order in order to diminish its dependence on the west. The Yekaterinburg summits sought to achieve exactly this.
In effect, Medvedev's visit to Africa should be seen as a move to create a bloc of countries rich in energy resources. The existence of such a bloc, in Russia's thinking, would increase the political weight of its participants and thus change the balance of power and influence in the world.
This may be more difficult to achieve than some Russian politicians think. Some African leaders may still be grateful to Russia for its assistance in their liberation struggles, but they need delivery, not just deals. Russia's record on this is not great. More importantly, however, the competition for the control of energy resources is exactly the field where Russia is bound to find itself in a head-on collision course not just with the west, but also with China, Russia's prize political ally in the new global order as it is seen from Moscow. It remains to be seen, how effective Russia's new engagement in Africa is going to be, and what effect it will have on its bigger goals. But for now it will certainly increase Medvedev's political weight at the coming G8 meeting.
From The Guardian June 26, 2009
Russian Return By Dina Ezzat
Will Moscow host a Middle East peace conference later this year? Dina Ezzat looks for answers
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's two- day visit to Cairo that ended yesterday heralds a greater Russian role in the Middle East. During extended talks with President Hosni Mubarak and a visit to the headquarters of the Arab League, where he met with its Secretary-General Amr Moussa and the representative of Arab states, Medvedev signalled that Moscow is seeking to once again become a key player in the politics, economics and military affairs of a region where the Soviet Union once held sway.
By according Medvedev a high-profile welcome, similar to that granted to US President Barack Obama earlier this month, Egypt seems determined to help the Russian comeback.
Following his talks with Mubarak -- a three-hour tête-à-tête that was followed by an expanded meeting attended by senior officials and businessmen from both sides -- Medvedev signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement. The agreement, both Mubarak and his Russian guest said, takes bilateral relations to a new platform of cooperation.
Prior to his address before representatives of the 22-member states of the Arab League Medvedev signed a Declaration of Intent that the Russian president and Moussa said opened up new vistas of cooperation on all fronts.
Throughout his visit Medvedev stressed Moscow's commitment to fostering closer cooperation not only between Russia and Egypt but with the rest of the Arab world.
Egyptian, Arab League and Russian diplomats in Cairo all say the cornerstone of future cooperation will be the peace process.
"I told President Medvedev that Egypt supports the peace conference that Russia has proposed should take place in Moscow," Mubarak said during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart.
Egyptian diplomats say that while Cairo is convinced that the US is ultimately able to bring about a peace deal it remains useful to have the support of other players, especially Russia.
Former Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in 2007 that Moscow host a peace conference that would address the entire Arab-Israeli struggle and not just the Palestinian-Israeli file. The proposal received lukewarm support from Washington and other capitals. Israel, under then prime minister Ehud Olmert, expressed scepticism. The Arab League and Arab states welcomed the idea.
Today the situation has changed, though only slightly. Washington and other concerned Western capitals -- partners with Russia in the International Quartet on the Middle East -- are less apprehensive. However, as one Egyptian diplomat said, they are still not very forthcoming.
"France is still hoping to host a peace conference this summer -- with more of an economic angle to it but there is a sense of apprehension in the Arab world that this is designed to be an Arab-Israeli normalisation venue."
The government of Israel, under Binyamin Netanyahu, has not openly come out against the conference. What it says is that Israel will not attend if Hamas is present. Russian diplomats have solicited the support of Hamas for the conference and, according to one Russian diplomat who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity, Moscow thinks Hamas "should be included somehow in the efforts".
The possibility of convening a Moscow Middle East peace conference will be discussed later this month in Italy on the fringe of the G8 Summit. "I agreed with President Medvedev that we would pick up talks there," Mubarak said.
Mubarak and Moussa will be both present in Italy for the G8+ talks. A meeting is also scheduled to take place between the Quartet and the Arab Peace Initiative Committee at ministerial level.
In his address at the Arab League Medvedev outlined ambitious goals for the Moscow conference: it should, he said, launch a peace process that will allow for a comprehensive settlement to the Arab- Israeli struggle and a viable Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, that will live in peace with all countries of the region.
Egypt has high hopes of expanded cooperation with Russia. Mubarak and Medvedev both spoke of planned talks for a free trade agreement between the two countries -- a difficult task given the volume of incompatible trade laws in both countries. They also said that Egyptian and Russian officials will discuss the possibility of setting up a Russian Industrial Zone in Borg Al-Arab, in the north of Egypt.
Following the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement by Mubarak and Medvedev, senior aides signed agreements for legal and environmental cooperation. Medvedev also promised greater cooperation on energy and nuclear technology, and sources from both sides revealed military cooperation was high on the agenda of the Mubarak-Medvedev summit.
Russian officials accompanying Medvedev in Cairo say closer ties with Egypt could help Russia re-establish the "strong friendship with the whole of the Arab world" that the Soviet Union enjoyed.
Speaking to the Arab League, Moussa said that "this visit would endorse ongoing efforts to upgrade Arab-Russian relations." Moussa particularly stressed Russia's role in promoting nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East, where "the presence of one nuclear arsenal is prompting the possible presence of another [nuclear arsenal] or maybe other [arsenals]."
Russia and the Arab League are currently discussing the details of a memorandum of understanding to provide an institutional context for long-term cooperation. It is expected to be signed later this year.
From Weekly Al-Ahram June 25-July 1, 2009
Nigeria/Russia Relation - Issues and Prospects By Charles Onunaiju
Russian President, Mr. Dmitry Medvedev makes the first ever Russia's leader state visit to Nigeria today. The diplomatic relation between Nigeria and Russia stretched back to the era of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Diplomatic relation with the two countries was established, soon after Nigeria's independence, on the 25th of November 1960. Embassy of then Soviet Union was opened in Lagos in 1961, while Nigeria reciprocated with the opening of its embassy in Moscow in 1962.
Beyond Nigeria, the then Soviet Union was active in Africa especially in giving impetus to the anti-colonial struggle. Even though, the conduct of the then Soviet Union was largely premised on ideological affirmation of proletarian internationalism, Moscow's moral and political repudiation of colonial domination was essential catalyst to eventual collapse of formal colonialism.
In the part of Africa, where colonial domination was most acute and unrelenting especially in Southern Africa, Soviet contribution to both political and military assistant to nationalist forces was remarkably. Infact, the United States of America that came very late to the concept of majority rule in dominated territories, especially in Southern Africa, did that on the impetus of the strong Soviet anti-colonial activities in the region. Former U.S Secretary of State, Henry Kissenger has written in one of his giant study, "Years of Renewal" that "we could not take a stand in Africa by giving lessons in geopolitics or by basing ourselves on minority governments. If we wanted to resist future Soviet and Cuban adventures in Southern Africa and to reduce and expel Soviet and Cuban influence there as we did in the Middle East - our policy would have to reflect the aspirations of the vast majority."
Earlier, before the Soviet anti-colonial activities in Africa jolted the United States out of its complacency and complicity with colonial and racist regimes, Kissenger wrote that the idea of "majority rule had been a liberal cause, never translated into policy," and the U.S administration was reluctant "to expose the white African minorities to precarious future" of eventual majority black rule.
It is no doubt therefore that the former Soviet Union for which Russia was one of the principal successor state was a critical partner to Africa most passionate political endeavour, the struggle to end colonial domination and white supremacist rule in the continent, even though, Soviet ideological motivation did not necessarily coincide with most of Africa's anti-colonial aspirations.
However, the sudden disintegration of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s almost brought to a close a unique chapter of Soviet-Africa relation. The domestic pre-occupation of the Russian federation and other former Soviet Republics in gathering the pieces of unexpected dissolution, almost obliterated their presence in Africa.
Russia was economically weak and its immediate post Soviet leader, Mr. Boris Yeltsin was so encumbered in several western strategic snares to think of projecting Moscow beyond its borders. A robust Moscow as it is now would never have watched the western military alliance, NATO, bombard a crucial ally with strategic frontier like the former Yugoslavia into submission and eventual disintegration.
Nonetheless, the federation of Russia has weaned off from the ideological prisms of the Soviet era. In an article by the Russian foreign Minister, Mr. Sergey Lavrov written in a Russian magazine last May, he argued that "the new, democratic Russia, simply withdrew from the cold war, renouncing the ideology that underlay Soviet participation in it," and added that this "was the choice of the Russian people and the peoples of other ex-Soviet republics." Continuing, Mr. Lavrov wrote that "if there was a "victory" in the cold war, then, it was "the states and political forces that drew the right conclusions from what happened may be considered to be the top winners," and then went ahead to assert that "Russia turned out to be among the front runners."
This critical world view of "a new democratic Russia" leads the ebullient foreign minister to conclude that "the national state retains and even consolidates its significance as a basic element of international relations" and therefore stressed "the need for meetings of heads of state and government to overcome crises as an extra testimony to this."
From the point of a new and resurgent democratic Russia, the focus of her international relations and foreign policy is very apparent. In this context, Nigeria/Russia relation, which would gain new momentum from the summit of the two heads of state in Abuja.
Since inception of diplomatic relation, more than 15 joint documents, including agreement on air communication in 1967, agreements on economic and scientific and technical cooperation of 1968, on cultural and scientific co-operation of 1970 have been signed. The trade agreement of 1987 and agreement on co-operation against narcotic substances in 1999 have also been concluded.
On account of new version post Soviet era co-operation with Russia, the then Nigeria President, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo paid a state visit to Russia from the 5th to 7th of March 2001. At the meeting in Moscow, the declaration on the principles of friendly relationship and partnership between Russia and Nigeria, along with some other documents were signed from the result of fruitful bilateral negotiation and engagement. As President Dmitry Medvedev arrives in Abuja on the epoch-making visit, there is a sense of expectation in which Nigeria/Russia relation, "reaches a completely new level of strategic partnership and co-operation" as the Russia's ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Alexander Polyakov told Daily Trust.
According to the Russian envoy, the Abuja summit of the two leaders will generate a fruitful co-operations between the two sides. He said that agreements would be concluded by both sides in areas of transfer of imprisoned persons, investment promotion and protection, agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, MOU on cooperation of the space agencies of the two countries, agreement on the cooperation of the ministries of justice of the two countries and a landmark agreement between the Russian Gas giant Gazprom and NNPC on joint venture cooperation.
However, while it is desirable that the two countries elevate their bilateral relation to functional cooperation in key and strategic sectors, Nigeria and even Russia should take account of the asymmetries in capacities and ensure that such lacuna is not converted into a dependency, the such that have bedivelled the trajectory of Nigeria relation with advanced countries of the West. Even Nigeria can learn from Russia how to keep your head above water, when you are down and then swim back to relevance and reckoning.
From Allafrica.com June 24, 2009
