China, Russia and Iran began a week-long joint naval exercise in South African waters on Saturday (10), in what the host country described as a BRICS Plus operation aimed at “ensuring the security of maritime transport and maritime economic activities.”
BRICS Plus is an expansion of a geopolitical bloc originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — and seen by its members as a counterweight to the economic dominance of the United States of America (USA) and the West — to include six additional countries.
Although South Africa regularly conducts naval exercises with China and Russia, this comes at a time of rising tensions between the administration of US President Donald Trump and several BRICS Plus countries, including China, Iran, South Africa and Brazil.
The expanded group also includes Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.
Chinese military officials who led the opening ceremony said that Brazil, Egypt and Ethiopia were participating as observers.
“The WILL FOR PEACE 2026 exercise brings together navies from BRICS Plus countries for joint maritime security operations and interoperability drills,” the South African military said in a statement.
The acting spokesperson for joint operations, Lieutenant Colonel Mpho Mathebula, said that all members had been invited.
Trump has accused BRICS countries of pursuing “anti-American” policies and, in January last year, threatened all members with an additional 10% trade tariff on top of duties already imposed on countries worldwide.
The pro-Western Democratic Alliance, the second-largest party in the coalition of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, said the exercises “contradict our declared neutrality” and that BRICS has “turned South Africa into a pawn in power games played by rogue states on the international stage.”
Mathebula rejected the criticism. “This is not a political agreement… there is no hostility [towards the USA],” he said, noting that South Africa also conducts periodic exercises with the US Navy.
“It is a naval exercise. The intention is to improve our capabilities and share information,” he added.
Source: Reuters
