Johannesburg: A handful of senior U. S. lawmakers from both sides sent a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, national security adviser Jacob Sullivan and U. S. trade envoy. war in Ukraine.
The June 9 letter, received via CBS News and first reported via the New York Times, claims that, despite its stated even-handed stance on the war in Ukraine, the South African government has strengthened relations with Moscow since President Vladimir Putin introduced Russia’s full policy. Offensive escalationinvasion in February 2022, compelling, according to lawmakers, the United States to act.
The letter (below) is the first open call to retaliate for what many in Washington see as South Africa’s move toward alignment with Russia at an imaginable risk to U. S. national interests. U. S. Specifically, lawmakers are calling for an upcoming summit under U. S. auspices. U. S. African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to move from South Africa to another country.
Letter from U. S. lawmakers on South Africa via CBS News on Scribd
The letter, signed by Senator Chris Coons (D) and Republican Senator Jim Risch, both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and endorsed by members of both parties on the House Foreign Relations Committee, says they are “seriously involved in organizing the 2023 AGOA Forum in South Africa would serve as an endorsement” of the country’s “support for Russia and imaginable violation of sanctions laws. ” from the USAUU”.
Lawmakers say South Africa’s recent moves call into question the country’s eligibility for AGOA advantages, which grants duty-free access to the U. S. market. The U. S. is adding products from some sub-Saharan African countries, adding South Africa. not interact in activities that compromise U. S. national security. U. S. or foreign policy objectives.
South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, exported about $3 billion worth of AGOA goods to the United States in 2022.
Speaking Tuesday as part of a virtual briefing through several senior U. S. officials, National Security Council senior director for African affairs Judd Devermont said Biden’s management shared “congressional fears about South Africa’s potential security partnership with Russia. “
“We are constantly racing to cut and invest in Putin’s war device and undermine Russia’s ability to bring this conflict to light,” Devermont said. to move on to the main points of personal conversations with South Africans, but make sure we have those conversations. “
South Africa’s relations with the United States have been tense since the country declared a “non-aligned position” on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It deteriorated further in May when US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety, speaking to local media, accused South Africa of secretly loading weapons onto a sanctioned Russian shipment at Simon’s Town port in December 2022, before the shipment returned to Russia with its contents.
Brigety is “fundamentally unacceptable. “
Theirs came after tensions flared in February when South Africa hosted joint naval war games off its coast with Russian and Chinese warships.
The lawmakers highlight any of the incidents in their letter, saying that “South Africa’s moves demand its eligibility for industry benefits under AGOA due to the legal requirement that recipient countries have no interaction in activities that compromise U. S. national security. “U. S. or foreign policy interests. “
Last year, the United States withdrew Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from AGOA over alleged human rights abuses.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced that a peace project by African leaders would be Ukraine and Russia in June, and he is expected to lead the delegation this week.
Ukrainian Presidents Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are due to meet with African leaders.
“Chief among our discussions are efforts to find a non-violent solution to the devastating standoff in Ukraine,” Ramaphosa said in announcing the trip, which he will sign for the leaders of five other African nations.
South Africa and Russia have a strong long-standing relationship, forged in the years of the apartheid regime. Moscow supported the existing African National Congress when it was still a liberation party fighting to end the racist regime.
CBS News manufacturer John Nolen in Washington contributed to this report.