{"id":15934,"date":"2026-01-10T21:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T21:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/15934\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T21:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T21:24:07","slug":"russia-iran-and-china-join-naval-drill-in-south-africa-as-tensions-with-us-rise-a-pawn-in-the-power-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/15934\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia, Iran and China join naval drill in South Africa, as tensions with US rise: ‘A pawn in the power games’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rogue states Russia, Iran and China joined naval drills alongside South Africa Saturday, as tensions mount between several countries in the block of nations and the US.<\/p>\n

The week\u2011long exercise, which began Friday off the Cape Town coast and is being led by China, comes just days after the US seized a Russian\u2011flagged oil tanker<\/a> north of Europe in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

China,\u00a0Russia\u00a0and South Africa are longtime members of BRICS \u2014 the 10-country economic alliance formed in 2009 that sees itself as a counterforce to US dominance<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 while Iran joined in 2024.<\/p>\n

The military drill began Friday and is set to last one week. REUTERS<\/p>\n

President Trump has accused the BRICS nations of pursuing \u201canti-American\u201d policies \u2014 and last year threatened them with an extra 10% tariff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The drill is being questioned by observers, who are skeptical over why a supposed economic alliance needed to carry out a miliary exercise.<\/p>\n

The alliance was also slammed by South Africa\u2019s main opposition party, which said it \u201ccontradicts our stated neutrality\u201d and endangers the country\u2019s position on the global stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalling these drills \u2018BRICS cooperation\u2019 is a political trick to soften what is really happening,\u201d stated the Democratic Alliance, the second largest party in South African President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s coalition.<\/p>\n

A Russian vessel was seen arriving in Cape Town Friday. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment is choosing closer military ties with rogue and sanctioned states such as Russia and Iran,\u201d it said, adding the relationship is making South Africa \u201ca pawn in the power games being waged\u201d by these countries.<\/p>\n

South African officials, however, defended the so-called \u201cWill for Peace 2026\u201d as essential.<\/p>\n

The drill comes at a time of increased tensions between the Trump administration and several countries in the alliance. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a demonstration of our collective resolve to work together,\u201d Capt. Nndwakhulu Thomas Thamaha, South Africa\u2019s joint task force commander, said at the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an increasingly complex maritime environment, cooperation such as this is not an option, it is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Russia, China and South Africa first conducted joint naval drills in 2019, but this year\u2019s exercise comes at a time of heightened tensions between the Trump administration and several BRICS nations.<\/p>\n

South Africa has found itself in a precarious position with the White House \u2014 facing pressure over its ties to Russia, Iran and China, while it seeks to preserve trade access with the US, one of its main trading partners.<\/p>\n

The country is reportedly trying to persuade Iran to be an observer rather than an active participant in the drill, over fears of how the exercise might be viewed by Trump, the country\u2019s News24 Agency is reporting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Post Wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rogue states Russia, Iran and China joined naval drills alongside South Africa Saturday, as tensions mount between several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[63,235,9301,176,584,131,1290,242],"class_list":{"0":"post-15934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-drills","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-russia","13":"tag-south-africa","14":"tag-water","15":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}