The announcement that South Africa would host Russian and Chinese warships for 10 days of exercises in February has raised concern at the White House. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Pretoria for an official visit earlier this week.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield is also on a tour to Africa, and President Joe Biden has said he plans to visit this year. South Africa has received pledges of up to $8.5-billion from the United States and other Western nations to fund its energy transition away from coal-burning power plants and recently agreed to some parts of the loan funding at the UN climate conference in Egypt last year.
“As you know, South Africa is the first country with a just energy transition partnership to which the United States was proud to commit as a partner,” Yellen said. “This partnership represents South Africa’s bold first step towards expanding electricity access and reliability and creating a low-carbon and climate-resistant economy.”