China's Belt and Road Initiative helps African countries in reducing the infrastructure gap in the region. However, it also leaves them open to the risk of unsustainable debt.
Facing huge political and security challenges in the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia now looks westward to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden coast for a new regional security arrangement.
As the digital infrastructure backed by China becomes increasingly prevalent in the African continent, it is also important for the latter to have enough oversight to ensure that these tools are not misused. Moreover, it would be more beneficial for Africa to allow other players to thrive in the region.
With John Bolton conceding that the US has limited resources to compete with the tens of billions of dollars that China is pouring into Africa, it is not clear how effective America’s new Africa strategy would prove to be in containing China.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent tour of Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa increased to 26 the number of African countries visited by very senior leaders, thus contributing to a significant reduction in India’s visibility deficit in the continent.
An increased level of engagement of the G20 with Africa could be significant as it could activate the existing G20 initiatives. It is also significant because it proposes to venture into new and critical areas such as skill development of women and rural youth, as well as a focus on renewable energy which are fundamental to capitalise on increased private investment.
The media, visual and means of mass communication have often been criticised for presenting a biased and skewed viewpoint on the conflict. However, the power of documentaries like the Ghosts of Rwanda which present before the audiences the unpalatable realities of the world, compels the international community to ponder, discuss and accept the need for change in its institutions and their ways of working. The release of the documentary became a moment of unfolding of the pristine rubric of United Nations, especially of its peacekeeping mandates, which were discriminatory and caught in power struggles.
In many ways Turkey is reviving its historic relations with Africa with an eye to strengthen economic ties and gain strategic depth, but for some this is a reminder of the bitter past and represents neo-Ottomanism.
Africa has an extensive and strategically located maritime space. This domain is vital for various reasons, including its abundance of economic resources and as a conduit for trade. Unfortunately, the potential of the African maritime space is being undermined by persistent, multifaceted and fluid domestic, regional and international threats and vulnerabilities. To tackle this, littoral African states have entered into various collaborative engagements at international and inter-agency level. The success of these arrangements is in turn greatly hampered by various practical challenges, including mistrust, diversity, ‘silo approach’ and lack of identified common Afro-centric security priorities and protocols. An urgent need for a functional collaborative engagement emerges as vital for a sustainable blue economy in Africa.
The RSA may be forced to choose between significantly increasing the budgetary allocations for the SAN and adopting a rotational storage programme to preserve capability while reducing operational costs.
