Johannesburg/Washington/Berlin: The US and European countries are pressuring countries that did not support and aid Ukraine in the conflict against Russia. In the last 24 hours, South Africa, a member of BRICS, has been targeted for maintaining its cooperation with Russia. The US diplomat in South Africa has accused the country of supplying arms to Russia. The South African government denied the allegation and aggressively forced the US diplomat to apologise. While the apology news is still going around, the German foreign minister has warned South Africa about its stand on Russia.
Last year in December, a Russian ship named Lady R reached the port of Cape Town in South Africa. US ambassador Ruben Brighetti accused South Africa of supplying arms to Russia by ship. The South African government denied the allegation and summoned the US diplomat. Brighetti later issued an apology for his statement. South Africa took an aggressive stance and criticised the US for dragging them into the US-Russia dispute.
Although the US diplomat apologised after an aggressive stance of South Africa, the German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has warned of the US allegations seriously and is in discussion with other countries. This is quite surprising that despite the apology from the US diplomat, the German foreign minister is still pursuing this and warning South Africa.
In the past few years, South Africa has focused on increasing cooperation with Asian countries, including Russia and China. South Africa is a member of the BRICS group and will be hosting a meeting of BRICS in the next few months to decide on an important agenda. In this background, accusation levied by the US and Germany grabbed attention. Earlier, the US tried to target South Africa by conducting naval exercises.
