Writing for the Council on Foreign Relations, academic Michelle Gavin, a senior fellow for Africa Studies and the former United States Ambassador to Botswana, highlights Russia’s growing influence in Africa, writing:
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s four-country Africa swing attracted a great deal of attention in Western media outlets, which framed his trip as a diplomatic campaign intended to prove that the West’s efforts to isolate Russia have obvious limits. In Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, and the Republic of Congo, Lavrov sought to deflect responsibility for the serious food and fuel disruptions resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and position Moscow as a champion of state sovereignty and independence. It’s an audacious claim from a country currently engaged in a campaign to annex part of its neighbor.”
On the West’s engagement in Africa, she notes:
“There are two pitfalls officials should take care to avoid. First, to make meaningful progress in advancing shared interests with African states, it’s important that U.S. officials are sincere when they deny that U.S. attention to African partners is primarily about boxing out Russia or China. Headlines like the Washington Post’s that reference a “New Cold War” serve as a warning to the United States. One can acknowledge that major powers are all seeking influence in Africa without framing the continent as a venue for proxy competition, rather than a force for shaping the global future in its own right. There will be no resilient rules-based international order in the future that does not include African leadership and account for African interests. Policies driven entirely by major power rivalries can drown out African agendas, and muddle U.S. strategic goals over time.
The other danger is to imagine that high level visits and emergency aid packages, in and of themselves, are enough to overcome long-festering neglect. Understaffed embassies are just one symptom of a U.S. foreign policy community that has treated Africa as an afterthought for far too long. It will take expertise, resources, and sustained commitment to move beyond crisis-management and execute a thoughtful strategy suited to U.S. interests and Africa’s dynamic future.”
Dawning continent https://t.co/NifESqpEMr
— Robert Cunningham (@RobertC78726751) March 9, 2022
[Opinion] Russian influence in #Africa has gradually grown over the past decade and poses various problems — for local populations as well as for #US and European interests #Blinken. By @kleikert https://t.co/MFBCR4DtCF
— EUobserver (@euobs) August 9, 2022