Pretoria has refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion but continues to call for dialogue.
The United States has criticised South Africa’s decision to hold military exercises next month with Russia and China as the war in Ukraine rages on.
The exercises – called Mosi, which means “Smoke” in Tswana, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages – will see 350 of South Africa’s soldiers train alongside their Russian and Chinese counterparts.
The drills will happen off South Africa’s coast from February 17 to 27 and will take place during the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The United States has concerns about any country … exercising with Russia as Russia wages a brutal war against Ukraine,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said on Monday.
The comments from Washington came hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor, in Pretoria.
South Africa defended its decision to hold the drills.
“All countries conduct military exercises with friends worldwide,” Pandor told reporters. “There should be no compulsion on any country that it should conduct them with any other partners.”
She said the exercises were “part of a natural course of relations between countries”, adding that Pretoria should not be denied “the right to participate” in the drills.
Lavrov said there was no need for any country to be concerned about them.
“Our exercises are transparent,” he told reporters. “We, together with our South African and Chinese partners, have provided all the relevant information. We don’t want to provoke any scandals or confrontation. We just want every country to be able to have their own rights in the international systems as provided by the UN Charter.”
