South Africa is under heat as it joins Russia and China for military training exercises just off the coast of Durban. The 10 days of naval drills coincide with the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and are drawing criticism from the West, even though South Africa says it is neutral towards the war. In this CBC Radio interview, SAIIA’s African Governance and Diplomacy Programme Head, Steven Gruzd, South Africa is signalling that it has sovereignty and its own foreign policy, that it will be friends with whoever it chooses and that it will not be bullied by the West or other countries.
