Alessandro Arduino

The recent 15th BRICS summit held in South Africa heralded an expanded organisation with new African members. While China seeks to increase its presence and influence on the African continent, it also faces the difficult task of juggling security and development, particularly given that Russia is likewise adamant about safeguarding and expanding its own interests in the area.

The world's map of global governance and security architecture is shifting, and BRICS is heeding the call for change, says academic Alessandro Arduino. Countries like Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, who have just been invited to join BRICS, seek to diversify their strategic options. This is in line with China's outreach to the global south and Russia’s need to combat international isolation, but the other BRICS members may have some hesitation.

The recent Niger coup and conflicts from Mali to Burkina Faso, Chad and Sudan have cast uncertainty on the future of Chinese economic diplomacy in the Sahel and other parts of Africa. Academic Alessandro Arduino explains.

When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan headed to the Gulf last week seeking investments, he had a formidable bargaining chip — drone diplomacy. The top-of-the-line Turkish combat UAV, the Akinci, is much sought-after in Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia. China may be worried, as this development could threaten its leading position in the field and hinder its economic and diplomatic offensive in the Middle East.

Mere dissatisfaction with the West is an insufficient adhesive to solidify membership within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which just welcomed Iran as a full member. While India tried to assert a greater role during the virtual SCO summit it hosted, conflicts of interest among members, and now between Iran and dialogue partners like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will be challenging to manage.

China’s private security companies, entrusted to protect Chinese companies’ investments abroad, especially in the Belt and Road Initiative, are largely unequipped to meet the task. With surging violence against Chinese overseas, which has gotten even more precarious with recent civil unrest and conflicts from Central Asia to the Middle East, can more be done to improve the situation?

While Chinese workers and infrastructure projects are at risk amid escalating conflict in Sudan, China is hard put to go beyond hedging its bets. Legislation may be needed to support Chinese private security companies (PSCs) operating in Africa, who are currently filling the security gap in safeguarding China’s BRI development in the region.

Academic Alessandro Arduino gives a reading on the recent Sudan conflict, exacerbated by the participation of mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group. China’s economic interests are being threatened in the mayhem, without any reprieve from a “no limits” partnership.

President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, following on the heels of China’s role in brokering a Saudi-Iran deal, speaks of China’s new-found confidence as a diplomatic rainmaker.