Russia exports its weapons

Russia is the last emerging country to return to Africa. The author of the chapter devoted to this return, Nina Bachkatov, who is a Professor at ULg, explains that one of the strategies employed by Moscow consisted in reactivating its old stock markets founded in Soviet universities in Africa where Russian is still spoken and which has enabled it to penetrate the continent. By renegotiating the debts owed by some African countries to the ex-URSS, Moscow has helped Russian companies to implant themselves in African economic environments, while prioritizing partnerships leading to the exploitation of natural resources. Moscow also uses its military expertise to gain a foothold in Africa as Nina Bachkatov writes: “The arms and military technology industries allows Russian influence to take advantage of client countries who are good customers but do not always have the means to pay in cash. They are given the option of paying in the form mining concessions and energy purchases and the construction of railways”. 

Convergences in the strategies of emerging countries

The emerging countries have a common point of adopting an attitude of non-interference in their bilateral relations with African countries unlike Western countries who consider that questions regarding human rights need to be raised. This attitude helps the emerging countries to win the favor of certain African leaders and facilitates the signing of new contracts. All the countries concerned also have in common a strengthening of their diplomatic activity in Africa through the opening of new embassies and the organization of summits bringing together the highest political authorities.

Study grants offered to African students are another key point in the policies of rapprochement applied by emerging countries in the African continent. This is the case with China, which grants 5,000 grants every year. “Each emerging country aims to attract the future political decision-makers in Africa, to educate them in their respective universities because they will then have a certain influence in the political or economic field”, notes Sebastian Santander. “Brazil has actually created an Afro-Brazilian university to educate future African managers. The vision of the world depends on the type of education received. If you follow this type of education in Brazil it will be somewhat different to that you might receive in a European university”.

Development of South-South cooperation

The emerging countries increase their scope of influence by developing cooperation for development between Southern countries. The authors of the work point to some of the shared initiatives between emerging countries such as the IBSA development fund created in 2004 by Brazil, India and South Africa to support the less-advanced countries. “Each of the three countries contributes up to a million dollars per year to finance projects aimed at fighting poverty. Countries such as Guinea-Bissau and Cap Verde have already benefitted, but the budget remains very limited. This fund is mainly intended to give visibility to the emerging countries”, explains Sebastian Santander.

The South-South cooperation took a significant turn in July 2014 with the creation of the sixth BRICS summit of a development bank and reserve fund.  These two new institutions will each receive a starting capital of 100 billion dollars. They are intended to provide an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank and to distance themselves from their heavily criticized practices: they will grant loans without conditions and will work on the principle of equality of voting right between states with regard to decision-making. The social headquarters of the Development Bank will be located in Shanghai.