Expert on EU and US problems in Africa
The presence of Belarus on the African continent is systematically and purposefully expanding. In his talk with Alfa Radio, political scientist Yuri Shevtsov speculated on whether Western countries are losing this market today.
Speaking about the results of 2023 for Belarus, programme host Vadim Shepet touched upon the topic of strengthening co-operation between our country and some other states. In particular, he mentioned China and the African continent, asking the political expert to comment on what this means for our country.
“Firstly, this means that the sanctions – imposed by the West against us and Russia – did not work. In turn, this means that there is no social basis for any strong protest activity and political destabilisation within Belarus. Secondly, for the Belarusian industry, access to Africa and the East means primarily access to those markets where our products are needed and enjoy popularity. We were kicked out of the West, the Ukrainian market also closed, we had to look for new markets. These markets are the East in a broad sense; moreover, today there is a search for opportunities to gain a foothold in the African market. That is, the issue of turning to the East and entering Africa is an issue of national independence for us, an issue of ensuring that we can withstand the blow of sanctions and not explode with internal problems,” noted Yuri Shevtsov.
According to him, what Belarus and Russia are doing in Africa today is just the beginning.
“The old metropolises have been sitting there in their spheres of influence for about two centuries. But there is a threat that they will lose control over part of their traditional spheres of influence. There are several reasons for this. The first is that Africa is experiencing a population explosion. Along with it, there is an increase in problems that the old metropolises cannot solve. The population is becoming too large, which requires serious resources. New players are emerging who are looking for allies, and this is where we fit in,” explained the political scientist.
The expert noted that another reason is that the EU is weakened from inside.
“The confrontation in Ukraine has only been going on for two years, but we can already see how tired they are. What will happen next? Ukraine is what brought them together for a short time. It seemed that this would continue, but no, they did not have enough resources or internal unity even to maintain support for Ukraine. What can we say about Africa? There are not enough resources within Europe to continue an active policy in Africa. The same applies to the US. The struggle that is going on between Republicans and Democrats leads to the fact that the United States ultimately also curtails its activities outside America,” explained Yuri Shevtsov.
