African leaders cooperate with Russia to gain leading position on global arms market

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

Over the past years, strengthening military-technical cooperation has been part of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation. Aside Asia and Latin America, Russia has signed bilateral military-technical cooperation agreement nearly with all African countries.

Chairing a meeting of the Commission for Military Technology Cooperation with Foreign States, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for renewed efforts, not only in preserving but also in strengthening Russia’s leading position on the global arms market, primarily in the high-tech sector, amid tough competition.

“Our capabilities in the military technical sphere must be used to modernise and upgrade all our industries, to support our science and to create a powerful technological potential for the country’s dynamic development,” Kremlin website officially reported.

Putin further called for reliance on the rich experience in this sphere and building up consistently military technology cooperation with foreign states. Kremlin website further reported that Russia’s global export of military products has been at a consistently high level, around $25 billion.

Russian manufacturers have the advantage of an unfailingly high quality of products, which have no analogue in their combat and technical characteristics. Russia values its reputation of being a conscientious and responsible participant in military technology cooperation.

“We strictly observe international norms and principles in this area. We supply weapons and military equipment solely in the interests of security, defence and anti-terrorism efforts. In each case, we thoroughly assess the situation and try to predict the developments in the specific region. There are no bilateral contracts ever targeted against third countries, against their security interests,” he explained.

Putin suggested that “the changing conditions in which we have to trade in military equipment require some adjustment of existing approaches and development of a new integrated strategy for the future.”

Over the past years, strengthening military-technical cooperation has been part of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation. Aside Asia and Latin America, Russia has signed bilateral military-technical cooperation agreement nearly with all African countries.

Putin explained that Russia is ready to distribute advanced weaponry across the globe, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. “Russia sincerely cherishes the historical strong, friendly, truly trusting ties with the states of Latin America, Asia, and Africa and is ready to offer its partners and allies the most modern types of weapons,” he underscored this point in his speech.

Our monitoring indicates that traditional importers of Russian weapons from Africa include Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Libya, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Russia is still exploring the possibility of concluding agreements with a few more African countries.

Arguably, Dr Shaabani Nzori, a Moscow based Foreign Policy Expert, thinks that Russia’s military-technical cooperation with African countries is appropriate in Russia’s foreign policy but African leaders should also allocate enough money to spend on priority development projects in Africa.

“Over these years Russia has highly prioritized the military sphere in Africa. It shows clearly Russia’s weak business engagement with Africa. Until now, we can’t point to completed Russian infrastructure projects in Africa. There are many investment areas. What is important these days is Russia has to go beyond just selling arms to Africa! Still, Russia has the chance to transfer its technology to agriculture and industries in Africa,” Shaabani said in the interview discussion.

Russian Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, told the global community “to go beyond military cooperation” to assist African countries that are still facing a number of serious development problems.

 “Joint efforts of the whole global community are required for meeting those challenges, I am confident that the aid to African states should go beyond military components. It is necessary to fortify public institutions, engage in economic and humanitarian fields, construct infrastructure facilities, create new jobs,” Bogdanov said, adding “those are the ways of solving such problems as migration, for example, to Europe.”

Bogdanov was contributing to the panel discussions on the topic: “Engaging Africa in Dialogue: Towards a Harmonious Development of the Continent” at the Dialogue of Civilisations Forum that was held from October 5-6 in Rhodes, Greece. Russia ranks second only to the United States with arms sales of around $15 billion a year, nearly a fifth of the global export market, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Kestér Kenn Klomegâh is a Public Affairs Analyst.