South Africa Defence Minister Thandi Modise. Twitter
New Delhi: A Russian cargo ship’s visit to South Africa’s biggest naval facility last month has strained relations between Washington and Pretoria, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
South Africa’s Defence Minister Thandi Modise said the US had been pressuring African nations over any links with Moscow.
Referring to a Russian vessel that was sanctioned in May over its alleged involvement in arms shipments for Moscow, a senior US official told WSJ that Washington was “concerned by the support the South African Armed Forces provided to the Lady R.”
According to the report, the ship was allowed to enter Simon’s Town navy base in early December with its transponders turned off and freely move cargo there.
“There is no publicly available information on the source of the containers that were loaded onto the ‘Lady R’,” the official said.
Modise had last month declined to reveal what cargo the ship was carrying, only saying that “whatever contents this vessel was getting were ordered long before Covid,” which emerged in late 2019.
“Washington threatens Africa, not just South Africa, of having anything that is even smelling of Russia,” Modise was quoted as saying by WSJ.
Under the US law, Washington can place sanctions on any entity that provides services to a black-listed ship.
Darren Olivier, who heads African Defense Review consulting company, said it was plausible that the ‘Lady R’ was bringing an old order of Russian ammunition to South Africa.
“Moscow and Pretoria agreed a shipment of 4.5 million rounds of Russian ammunition worth around $585,000 back in 2020,” WSJ report quoted Olivier as saying.
According to the senior US official, the US embassy warned Pretoria in November that a sanctioned vessel was about to arrive in the country, but the South African authorities did not respond.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.