BRICS MUST ACCEPT MORE MEMBERS TO BECOME A TRUE CATALYST FOR A NEW, BETTER WORLD ORDER
The annual BRICS Summit, to be attended by heads of state, takes place in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro in early July. BRICS, acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is expanding at the speed of a lightning. At the 2023 BRICS Summit in South Africa, six more countries were accepted as members into […]
CHINA STEPS IN TO RESCUE THE GLOBAL SOUTH AS PRESIDENT TRUMP’S TARIFFS WREAK HAVOC
At a time of great economic strife across the global community – triggered largely by the huffing and puffing of President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy – too many nations are reeling from the weaponization of tariffs as a diplomatic tool. Presiding over the world’s largest economy and unparalleled military might that borders on […]
UKRAINE WILL PAY A HEAVY PRICE FOR ILL-ADVISED DRONE ATTACKS ON RUSSIA’S AIRBASES
In a much-anticipated telephone call this week, US President Donald Trump was at pains explaining to his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, that Washington absolutely had nothing to do with Ukraine’s astoundingly provocative drone attacks on five Russian airbases. The airbases, attacked simultaneously, house Russia’s strategic bomber fleet. The attacks appear to put a spanner in […]
THE “AFRIKANER REFUGEES” FALLACY EXPOSES THE MALADY IN SA-US RELATIONS
Never in the history of democratic South Africa has so few caused so much pain to so many and with impunity. The preposterous saga of a very tiny minority of Afrikaners who this week flew to the US under the utterly false pretense of escaping persecution has pooh-poohed Mandela’s dream of a South Africa for […]
WHO BENEFITS FROM ZELENSKY’S VISIT?
What is the essence of a foreign policy that does not rally the nation around a common goal, and instead divides the populace right down the middle, leaving a bitter taste and uncertainty? The visit by the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to our capital this week has caused a much greater harm to the national […]
SA MUST RETHINK HOSTING THE DIVISIVE UKRAINE’S ZELENSKY
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s scheduled official state visit to SA is next week is fraught with huge geopolitical repercussions for Pretoria. Since the announcement in recent times that President Zelensky would be landing on our shores on April 24, I’ve been grappling to wisdom behind his visit. In all honesty, and without a shred of […]
TRUMP LEAVES WAR-MONGERING EUROPE IN HIS WAKE AS HE EMBRACES RUSSIA
Within ten minutes of his call with the US President Donald Trump this week, Russian leader Vladimir Putin instructed his military to halt all attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. That is how determined both Trump and Putin are apparently eager to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, which Trump vows would never have […]
HAVE POWER RELATIONS CHANGED?
As South Africa marks Human Rights Day, March 21 in remembrance of Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, the question stands: has the power relations picture changed? Margaret Thatcher said there were a lot of nobodies in the UK who are somebodies in SA. Applying sanctions would increase a lot of nobodies in the UK. Thatcher’s rationale […]
PANIC-STRICKEN EU LEADERS FLOCK TO THE WHITE HOUSE TO PLEAD WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP
The global governance system is in a tailspin. But more to the point – the re-emergence of the US President Donald Trump as the Commander-in-Chief of the world’s nuclear power has thrown Europe in a fix, a spot of bother. The speed with which the change of guard in the White House has upended the […]
ZELENSKY’S WHITE HOUSE HUMILIATION PITS EUROPE AGAINST THE US, AND DAWN OF A NEW WORLD ORDER
The very public fallout between US President Donald Trump and his visiting Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House has complicated Europe’s implicit plan to prolong their proxy war with Russia. Even for Diplomacy 101, Zelensky failed spectacularly. The diplomatic decorum requires at its fundamental basis the ethos of humility, calmness and erudite exposition […]
UN SECURITY COUNCIL ADOPTS RESOLUTION URGING SWIFT END TO RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT
The United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution calling for a swift end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and urging lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine, as the world marked the third anniversary of the full escalation of the crisis. The resolution calls for a quick end to the conflict and mourns the […]
CHINA’S PRESIDENT XI JINPING HOLDS PHONE CONVERSATION WITH RUSSIA’S PRESIDENT PUTIN
Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that China welcomes the positive efforts made by Russia and relevant parties to resolve the Ukraine crisis. Xi made the remarks during a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Xi noted that soon after the full escalation of the Ukraine crisis, he had outlined China’s basic position, […]