Putin arrives for historic South Africa visit
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tuesday September 5, 2:20 PM
*
Putin arrives for historic South Africa visit*
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Cape Town for the first ever
visit to South Africa by a Kremlin leader, a foreign ministry
spokeswoman said.
Putin arrived at Cape Town airport shortly before 7:30am (530 GMT) and
headed to the presidential residence Tuynhuys, where he was scheduled to
meet his counterpart Thabo Mbeki.
Putin was scheduled to hold talks with his counterpart Thabo Mbeki,
address parliamentary leaders and sign a raft of agreements with
Africa's economic powerhouse during his two-day visit to Cape Town.
He is also due to pay a visit to Robben Island where Mbeki's predecessor
as South African president and head of the African National Congress
(ANC), Nelson Mandela, spent 18 years as a prisoner of the former
apartheid state.
Much of the ANC leadership was schooled in the former Soviet Union,
including Mbeki who underwent military training in Russia as a young man.
But as the end of the apartheid era coincided with the collapse of the
Soviet Union, a potentially fruitful diplomatic relationship failed to
take root.
Putin's visit to South Africa, followed by a trip to Morocco, is seen as
part of a drive by Moscow to reassert its diplomatic influence in Africa
and in particular with a country that has its own eyes on a place at the
United Nations Security Council table.
In an interview published on the eve of Putin's arrival, South Africa's
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said cooperation with Russia
would enable Africa to "have its voice heard" on international matters.
"We hope to develop our relations in the aerospace, energy and
military-industrial spheres," she added in an interview with the
official Russian newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta.
The South African foreign ministry said the two leaders would sign a
treaty of friendship as well as specific agreements to cooperate in
health, civil aviation as well as in space technology.
A large delegation of Russian businessmen will accompany Putin, hoping
to strike up agreements.
The volume of bilateral trade has grown steadily in recent years, with
South Africa exporting around 130 million dollars worth of goods to
Russia in 2004.
Both countries have already shown an ability to forge common policies by
coordinating their approach to the minerals market in recent years.
Zwelethu Jolobe, a lecturer in international affairs at the University
of Cape Town, said Putin's visit would be a chance for Moscow to forge
closer ties with a natural ally that it has neglected in the recent past.
"Putin's final term has been characterised by a renewed drive by Russia
to flex its muscles in international diplomacy," he said.
"It's quite clear that for a long time, since the time of the Soviet
bloc, Russia's relations with Africa and Latin America have been neglected."
The invitation to Putin also appears part of an effort by Mbeki to look
beyond Western powers for diplomatic support as well as to broader trade.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was a visitor a couple of months ago in Cape
Town while Mbeki is due to attend a three-way summit with Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and India's Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh in Brasilia later this month.
"Mbeki wants to solidify South Africa's position as a strong,
middle-income country," said Jolobe.
"There was a strong tendency in the post-apartheid era to trade with the
EU and Japan but Mbeki realises that you need to broaden your allies and
do it in a way that you can assert your independence."