Kremlin is on a gambit in Africa. The objective is pure and simple: not to lag behind China, the US and to a lesser extent India, Japan and France in positioning in the African market, said to house over 1.3 billion people, who will demand everything from food grains to aircrafts in the coming years. The Putin Administration has changed the narrative in its renewed approach of friendliness to the continent from a crass military approach in the yester years to a more somber trade expansion mode now. Whether it would pay off at all in the changed environs when most of the African countries are looking more towards the financial comforts offered by the China and technological excellenceof the West, is another question.
The recent Russia-Africa summit concluded recently in Sochi in Russia, the host country is excited about the outcome on two counts. One, going by the whopping US$12.5 billion deal , Russia said to have received from these countries at the summit in terms of setting up of nuclear power plants, fighter jets and missile defense systems, no matter they are sheer MOUs and possibly can be padded up also to make the deal attractive, it could be a good beginning.
Secondly, several heads of states were in attendance at the Summit. It is the first time Putin had rubbed shoulders with the powerful leaders in the continent, an exercise, which he intends to deepen in the coming times.
Conceding that proof of the pudding is in eating’ and the result of the much touted summit can be gauged by its results on the ground, it is going to be a new chapter for Russia to establish its footprint once again in Africa. But the game that is going to be played out will be materially different from what the erstwhile Soviet Union played in the cold war days. Africans have become smarter, shrewder and business like. Africans’ present perception is that “ we have Chinese coming with signed cheque books , Americans coming with promises and lollypops and Russians with used aircrafts and missiles.” They have realized the art of separating Chaffee from the grain. President Putin at the Black sea resort of Sochi had extended what all hospitality that could be given to heads of state to a good number of African heads of state assembled there. He should also know that African leaders could bite only when they get what they are looking for, especially when trade balance between Russia and Africa is heavily tilted towards the former.
Admittedly, 43 heads of state attended the two-day jamboree in rapt attention and shared their development agenda and more importantly their concerns about the continuing US sanctions on Russia as well as on some of the African countries. Putin played to the point, when he said that he would double the trade volume in four to five years. That said, Russia’s current bilateral trade of US$20billion is just a tenth of China’s. On the top of it, Russia’s exports rely heavily on exports of arms and grain to a handful of richer states. With a view to augment bilateral trade and follow China’s trail in the game, Kremlin wants to make use of the armaments trade as a trigger. To be on the right side of the African leaders, Putin held separate parleys with several heads of state.
But Kremlin knows Africans may be temperamentally at variance with the West because of the legacy issues like racism, discrimination et al. But when it comes to striking deals, be it for importing fast moving consumer goods, state-of –the- art technologies, sending their children for higher education, etc they still prefer the West and not even China. This should be the basics that Russia should know while dealing with Africa. It is also a fact that such tendencies cannot be wished away by rhetoric, profound speeches and high pitched public postures. Should Kremlin and Putin realize that new game in Africa is AfCATA, free trade, relocating investments, creating employment and a long list of such felt needs, Russia can claim that they are in right track?
