Chinese, Russian, and Iranian warships have launched a week of naval drills off South Africa’s Cape Town coast, amid high geopolitical tensions over the United States’ intervention in Venezuela and its move to seize tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.
These Chinese-led exercises, organised last year under the Brics bloc, aim to practice maritime safety and anti-piracy operations, and to “deepen cooperation”, South Africa’s armed forces have stated.
China, Russia, and South Africa are long-standing Brics members; Iran joined the group in 2024. The Iranian navy’s participation occurs as domestic protests against the Islamic Republic’s leadership continue.
It was not immediately clear if other countries from the Brics group – which also includes Brazil, India and the United Arab Emirates among others – would take part in the drills. A spokesperson for the South African armed forces said they weren’t yet able to confirm all the countries participating in the drills, which are due to run until next Friday.
Chinese, Russian and Iranian ships were seen moving in and out of the harbour that serves South Africa’s top naval base in Simon’s Town, south of Cape Town, where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean. China’s ships include the Tangshan, a 161-meter (528-foot) long destroyer-class vessel. Russia’s Baltic Fleet said it sent a smaller warship, the Stoikiy, and a replenishment tanker to South Africa.
South Africa also hosted Chinese and Russian ships for navy drills in 2023.
The latest drills were meant to happen in late November but were delayed for diplomatic reasons because South Africa hosted Western and other world leaders for the Group of 20 summit around the same time.
The drills are bound to further strain ties between the US, and South Africa, which is the most advanced economy in Africa and a leading voice for the continent but has been especially targeted for criticism by the Trump administration.
US president Donald Trump said in an executive order in February that South Africa supports “bad actors on the world stage” and singled out its ties with Iran as one of the reasons for the US cutting funding to the country. China and Russia have often used Brics forums to launch criticism of the US and the West.
South Africa has long claimed it follows a nonaligned foreign policy and remains neutral, but Russian presence on the southern tip of Africa has strained its relationship with the US before. The Biden administration accused South Africa in 2023 of allowing a sanctioned Russian ship to dock at the Simon’s Town naval base and load weapons to be taken to Russia for the war in Ukraine. South Africa denied the allegation.
South Africa’s willingness to host Russian and Iranian warships has also been criticised inside the country. The Democratic Alliance, the second biggest political party in the coalition government, said it was opposed to hosting drills that included “heavily sanctioned” Russia and Iran.
“Calling these drills ‘Brics cooperation’ is a political trick to soften what is really happening: government is choosing closer military ties with rogue and sanctioned states such as Russia and Iran,” the Democratic Alliance said.
