South Africa refers to “bullying” in US talks: China and Russia
Kanako Mita, Sawako Utsumi, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
America and other nations within the G7 were accused of taking a bullying attitude and extremely patronizing position toward the continent of Africa concerning China, the Russian Federation, and other issues. Naledi Pandor, the South African Minister of International Relations, said this while hosting Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State.
America and South Africa share similar issues. For example, their respective borders, mass immigration, high homicide, high incidence of rape, the endless cycle of poverty in certain parts of major cities, and other ills. Indeed, attacks against immigrants have happened in South Africa in recent years. This concerns rampant indigenous poverty and neglect by the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
However, the visit of Blinken was intended to show South Africa and the continent that America cares about Africa – outside of political pressure. Yet, Pandor emphasized that nations have different perspectives and concerns. Also, Pandor indicated strongly that nations shouldn’t face economic and political pressure for not towing the G7 anti-Russia and anti-China diktats by stealth.
Voice of America reports, “South Africa has remained neutral on the conflict with Russia, its partner in the BRICS group of countries, and abstained from any U.N. votes on the matter, though Pandor said the country “abhorred” war and would like to see an end to the conflict.”
Pandor said, “From some of our partners in Europe and elsewhere, there has been a sense of patronizing bullying — ‘You choose this or else.’ And the recent legislation passed in the United States of America by the House of Representatives, we found a most unfortunate bill.”
The above refers to the bill passed in America this year called the “Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act.” Yet, for many nations in Africa, it is outside pressure from America that seeks to dictate and enforce America’s anti-Russia policies on nations that are independent.
Globally, Australia, the European Union (EU), and G7 nations are in collective “colonial mode” – against any nation that is overtly independent and seeks an alternative foreign policy. Australia is focused on China and seeks to impose itself on the Solomon Islands and others along with G7 nations. Meanwhile, in Europe, the nation of Hungary suffers from this “colonial mode” and Serbia also faces enormous pressure to conform to the anti-Russia policies of the EU and G7.
South Africa welcomes economic trade with America and other positives. However, this nation, and many others, want their foreign policy goals to be respected without being put into a corner.
It is equally ridiculous – similar to the recent G20 meetings in Indonesia – that China and the Russian Federation are brought up to such an extent by America, Japan, and other nations. After all, West Papua is occupied by Indonesia – while South Africa is more concerned about the crisis in Northern Mozambique and other important conflicts in Africa.
This in itself highlights how biased G7 and EU nations are.
PLEASE DONATE TO HELP MODERN TOKYO TIMES
Modern Tokyo News is part of the Modern Tokyo Times group
DONATIONS to SUPPORT MODERN TOKYO TIMES – please pay PayPal and DONATE to sawakoart@gmail.com
http://moderntokyotimes.com Modern Tokyo Times – International News and Japan News
http://sawakoart.com – Sawako Utsumi personal website and Modern Tokyo Times artist
https://moderntokyonews.com Modern Tokyo News – Tokyo News and International News
PLEASE JOIN ON TWITTER
https://twitter.com/MTT_News Modern Tokyo Times
PLEASE JOIN ON FACEBOOK