The European Union and South Africa took another step toward shoring up a shaky relationship in a world where both are currently the target of US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable politics.
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(Bloomberg) — The European Union and South Africa took another step toward shoring up a shaky relationship in a world where both are currently the target of US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable politics.
Their first summit since 2018, held in Cape Town on Thursday, comes just weeks after the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas lent support to South Africa’s presidency of the Group of 20 this year after US State and Treasury secretaries embarrassed the country by skipping G-20 gatherings last month.
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Trump has frozen aid to South Africa and falsely accused it of seizing private land, something that hasn’t happened since the end of White-minority rule in 1994. He has also hit the EU, along with other nations, with trade tariffs and stoked concern that Europe can no longer rely on Washington for military protection.
That new reality, according to Western diplomats Bloomberg spoke to, is warming relations which had cooled between the two after South Africa failed to clearly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and moved closer to it and China as part of the BRICS alliance.
‘Shared Belief’
“In a moment of increased global confrontation and competition, we must strengthen our partnership further,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the summit. “We must work closely together, to ensure the future is built on our shared belief in cooperation and human dignity.”
The EU plans to mobilize €4.7 billion ($5.1 billion) for investment in South Africa that will include money for green energy as well as for the manufacture of vaccines in the country, she said in her opening remarks.
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It also plans to start talks with South Africa over a Clean Trade and Investment Partnership that could boost the production of metals needed for the energy transition and green hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel that’s seen as possible alternative to natural gas in the future.
“In stable relations we stay together the course,” Von der Leyen said. “We give predictability and reliability.”
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is hosting the gathering, separately lauded the importance of the EU as a development, trade and investment partner for his country.
“This summit is taking place at a time of global uncertainty characterised by rising unilateralism, economic nationalism and a retreat from international law and human rights,” he said. “We welcome the European Union’s support for multilateral institutions and the fundamental principles of the United Nations.”
The warm language contrasts with the previously ambivalent attitude of South African politicians toward the EU, which collectively is its second-biggest trade partner after China.
European diplomats stationed in Pretoria, who had struggled to get the attention of South African ministers, said there has been a thawing in relations in recent months. They asked not to be identified as they aren’t permitted to discuss confidential government relations.
Local politicians have previously accused Europe of using South Africa as a green transition “guinea pig” in a $9.3 billion climate-finance pact to wean the country off a reliance on coal. The US last month withdrew its pledge of $1 billion in loans toward the program.
“Whatever differences there were I feel that they are in the past,” Kallas told reporters in Johannesburg on Feb. 20 when asked about frictions between the EU and South Africa.
The summit is part of a strategic partnership agreed between South Africa and the EU in 2007, making the country the only one on the continent with a pact of this kind with the bloc.
Summits were held every year between 2009 and 2013, but took a five-year break until 2018 during the tenure of South Africa’s then-president, Jacob Zuma, under whom South Africa joined BRICS and formed closer relations with Russia and China.
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(Updates with Ursula von der Leyen’s remarks at summit in fifth paragraph.)
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