Post-apartheid South Africa and revolutionary Iran need each other

2023-08-12 19:21:55
Post-apartheid South Africa and revolutionary Iran need each other

Iran’s expansion of relations with South Africa, an emerging power, not only strengthening cooperation with the African country, but can help reduce Western pressure, Press TV said in an article.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is fresh from a visit to Pretoria where he said "great steps have been taken to consolidate relations in various areas" since the establishment of new diplomatic relations between Iran and South Africa.

His visit aimed to pave the way for the official trip of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi in Johannesburg on August 24 to attend a summit of BRICS group of major emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Iran, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, embarked on renewing relations with the African people based on Islam’s prohibition of racism.

The world today is witnessing the creation of a bloc of countries that have experienced high economic growth and turned to new economic powerhouses.

China in Southeast Asia, India in South Asia, Russia in Eastern Europe, Brazil in Latin America and South Africa in the African continent initially began to play a role in their peripheral regions, but they have gradually sought to engage in extra-regional collaborations.

They have formed new alliances such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, IBSA Group of India, Brazil and South Africa and BRICS in order to make their mark in the world order and offer an alternative force to reckon with.

In 2001,Goldman Sachs identified Brazil, Russia, India and China as four emerging markets, with South Africa entering and this league of advancement in 2010.

The BRICS economies have been identified as the fastest growing economies of the world and the engines of the global recovery process after the US subprime mortgage crisis.

The alliance is rooted in two main phenomena, the first being the economic growth of these countries which has allowed them to act in international financial and monetary relations.

The second phenomenon relates to transformation and change in the nature of international politics, where the US power is waning and the country is losing its clout in many places.

Since the most important needs of the emerging powers are the supply of raw materials, energy and foreign markets, the regions with the most resources and the largest commercial markets are about to be the scene of new competition.

The decline of the United States' dominance over global regions will stimulate the ambitions of regional powers and other great powers in special regions such as the Middle East and East Asia, Africa and Latin America.

According to Goldman Sachs economists, the most immediate concern of the American society is the rapid growth of emerging economies in Asia. They predict that China will replace America as the world’s top economy in 2027, and the BRICS will have a larger economy than the Group of Eight by 2032.

The inherent strength of the BRICS emanates from strong domestic based economies in the case of Brazil and India and significant outward linkages of Russia and China. South Africa benefits from its large resource base and proximity to untapped growth potential of the African continent.

The group occupies 40 percent of global population, 30 percent of the land mass and nearly 25 percent of the GDP in purchasing power terms. According to Goldman Sachs estimates, the BRICS countries are expected to represent 47 percent of the global GDP by 2050.

On the southernmost tip of the African continent, post-apartheid South Africa has been able to develop the ability and will to create and maintain a regional regime for the benefit of all, where other countries have asked it to play the role of a safe dominant power.

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