The ANC and DA’s foreign policies are converging pragmatically, balancing relations with China, Russia, and Western powers.
The foreign policies of the ANC and the DA, as the main parties in the government of national unity, appear to be converging as they attempt to preserve the delicate coalition.
While they seem to be going in the same direction in dealing with China and Russia on trade matters, there are some unresolved matters in their approaches towards the raging conflicts in Israel and Ukraine.
The DA has yet to clarify its stance on the Middle East and Ukraine, as it loosens up on its dogmatic pro-West foreign policy approach and tries to familiarise itself with old, non-Western ANC allies.
ALSO READ: ‘ANC-DA relationship in Gauteng is mission impossible’
DA takes pragmatic approach
However, DA leader John Steenhuisen indicated that the party would not follow a rigid ideological foreign policy outlook.
Instead it would take a pragmatic approach that put the country’s interests first. While some expected the DA to be antagonistic towards China as it is a socialist country and to Russia as an old enemy of the West, Steenhuisen was optimistic about the two countries.
He commended China as a significant trading partner with a huge market that South Africa should exploit for its goods.
The DA would act like India and decide what was in the country’s interests and act accordingly in dealing with foreign policy.
Steenhuisen believed the country should leverage on opportunities available in the southsouth and north-south relationships and exploit both, instead of focusing on one side.
The party would put the interests of the country ahead of party interests by looking pragmatically at opportunities for South Africa around the globe.
DA resolves to support Brics for SA’s good
In fact, it was one of the DA’s last congress resolutions to support Brics and to utilise it for the country’s good.
“We will use Brics to advance the interests of South Africa,” Steenhuisen said.
Steenhuisen, who attended the recent the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation as minister of agriculture, accompanying President Cyril Ramaphosa, said China was a huge market and an ally for South Africa to trade with.
The fact that South Africa is member of Brics was an advantage for the country.
“I am going to use our membership of that multilateral platform to make a case for South African products,” he said.
But the minister asked why China would give preferential trade treatment to Australian products, such as wines among others, but not to South Africa, which is a fellow Brics member.
Steenhuisen would go to Russia if asked
Regarding Russia, he said if Ramaphosa invited him to attend the Brics summit to be held in Kazan, Russia from 22-24 October, he would accept and attend for the same reasons – to explore opportunities for the South African agricultural sector.
On geopolitics, the DA supported Israel in the ongoing war between the Jewish state and Hamas. This was despite South Africa’s decision to take Israel to the International Court of Justice claiming its actions in Gaza amounted to genocide.
Previously, the DA also opposed SA’s non-aligned stance on the Ukraine-Russia war.
Recently the DA attempted to put pressure on South Africa to prevent Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa from hosting the African Union Summit in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 17 August because of that country’s crackdown against political opponents.
Whether the DA will succeed in persuading the ANC to lean towards its stance on foreign policy issues remains to be seen, but so far it’s the DA that is moving to the left.
ALSO READ: Thucydides Trap or peaceful future? The global stakes
