South Africa has defended weeklong naval drills with Russia, Iran, China and other countries as \u201cessential\u201d, describing the manoeuvres off its coast as a vital response to rising maritime tensions globally.<\/p>\n
The \u201cWill for Peace 2026\u201d exercises that began on Saturday off the coast of Cape Town come just days after the United States seized a Venezuela-linked Russian oil tanker in the North Atlantic, saying it had violated Western sanctions.<\/p>\n
The seizure, part of a continued US pressure campaign against Venezuela, followed US attacks on the South American country and the abduction of its president, Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n
The naval exercises also come at a time of heightened tensions between US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration and several BRICS Plus countries, including China, Iran, South Africa and Brazil.<\/p>\n
Captain Nndwakhulu Thomas Thamaha, South Africa\u2019s joint task force commander, told the opening ceremony on Saturday that the drills were more than a military exercise and a statement of intent among the BRICS group of nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a demonstration of our collective resolve to work together,\u201d Thamaha said. \u201cIn an increasingly complex maritime environment, cooperation such as this is not an option, it is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exercises also aimed to \u201censure the safety of shipping lanes and maritime economic activities\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
Expanding bloc<\/p>\n
BRICS, originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Lieutenant Colonel Mpho Mathebula, acting spokesperson for joint operations, told the Reuters news agency that all member states had been invited to this week\u2019s naval exercises.<\/p>\n
China and Iran deployed destroyer warships to South Africa, while Russia and the United Arab Emirates sent corvette vessels and South Africa dispatched a frigate. Indonesia, Ethiopia and Brazil have joined as observers.<\/p>\n
Asked about the timing of the event, South Africa\u2019s Deputy Defence Minister Bantu Holomisa said on Friday that the drills were planned long before the current spike in global tensions.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us not press panic buttons because the USA has got a problem with countries. Those are not our enemies,\u201d Holomisa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s focus on cooperating with the BRICS countries and make sure that our seas, especially the Indian Ocean and Atlantic, they are safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Previously known as Exercise Mosi, the drills were initially scheduled for November but postponed due to a clash with the G20 summit in Johannesburg, which was boycotted by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Washington has accused the BRICS bloc of \u201canti\u2011American\u201d policies and warned that its members could face an additional 10-percent tariff on top of existing duties already applied worldwide.<\/p>\n
South Africa has also drawn US criticism for its close ties with Russia and a range of other policies.<\/p>\n
That includes the South African government\u2019s decision to bring a case against top US ally Israel to the International Court of Justice, accusing the Israeli government of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
South Africa also drew criticism for hosting naval drills with Russia and China in 2023, coinciding with the first anniversary of Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The three nations first conducted joint naval drills in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa has defended weeklong naval drills with Russia, Iran, China and other countries as \u201cessential\u201d, describing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[9052,593,10498,235,9055,176,10497,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-16211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-bantu-holomisa","9":"tag-brics","10":"tag-captain-nndwakhulu-thomas-thamaha","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-global-tensions","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-manoeuvres","15":"tag-south-africa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16211","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=16211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}