Why South Africa is drifting into the Sino-Russian orbit

South africa’sancanc navy, like much of the country, is dilapidated. Its fleet spends less than half the time on the seas that it did a decade ago. It has few working ships, a result of budget cuts by the ruling African National Congress (). So it makes sense that the country would welcome better fleets that might teach it a thing or two.But the hosting of Russian and Chinese navies for exercises from February 17th-27th is not just a chance for sailors to salute each other. Coinciding with the one-year anniversary of , the operations underline how the government, despite claiming to be neutral over the conflict, is drifting into the Sino-Russian orbit, partly by choice. The West’s resulting frustrations with South Africa show that mid-ranking countries claiming to be “non-aligned” today are often performing a tricky balancing act.