Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

From imperial paternalism to genuine partnership

Jérémy Lissouba 30th March 2023

Europe’s relations with Africa and Asia are on the brink of collapse, and Russia is benefiting.

Over a year since the onset of the war in Ukraine, the world remains caught in the middle. Against a backdrop of high energy and food prices, ravaging inflation, social unrest and fears of another global recession, western and Russian blocs are once again vying for the support of nations from the developing world.

Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, Sergei Lavrov, Qin Gang and Anthony Blinken are just some of the figures who have made high-profile visits to Africa in the last 12 months. All have largely focused on co-operation and trade, yet each has done so in the language of a cold-war reboot, with Ukraine as one of its most prominent features.

Armed with their respective narratives, these superpowers wish the nations of Africa and Asia to pick a side. Yet, unlike in the previous century, those nations cannot so easily be made to choose and nor should they have to. Russia understands this; the west does not.

Longstanding partners

It is no secret that Africa has been reluctant to condemn overtly Russia’s actions in Ukraine or to participate in western efforts to sanction and isolate the warring country. Instead, African and Asian nations have continued to welcome these longstanding partners with open arms—widely condemning the war but not Russia.

In Malawi, for instance, Russia’s deliveries of tens of thousands of tonnes of fertiliser amid global shortages are seen by struggling farmers as heaven-sent. Malawi’s minister of agriculture shook hands with the Russian ambassador this month, describing Russia gratefully as ‘a true friend’. Russia’s plans to send 260,000 tonnes of fertiliser to countries across Africa are certain to spread similar sentiments. In my country, Congo-Brazzaville, the government signed five major co-operation agreements with Russia amid its war with Ukraine, including for the construction of a new oil pipeline and to enhance military co-operation.

This charm offensive, prominently led by the Russian foreign minister, Lavrov—who has visited South Africa, Eswatini, Angola, Eritrea, Mali, Sudan and Mauritania just since January—is already nourishing pro-Russian sentiment throughout the continent. It stands in sharp contrast to the damp squib of the recent African adventure by the French president, Macron.

Tone-deaf faux pas

In his press conference with the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, occasion for perhaps the most tone-deaf faux pas of his trip, Macron was repeatedly invited to condemn Rwanda’s support for M23 rebels causing havoc in eastern DRC—a situation comparable to Russia’s covert support for Donbas separatists in recent years. To all intents and purposes, Macron failed to do so. Instead, when a French journalist quizzed him on the disparaging reference by the former defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to an ‘African-style compromise’ in relation to Tshisekedi’s 2019 election, Macron proceeded to lecture the Congolese president on freedom of the press—much to the disbelief of those witnessing the scene.

Despite Macron’s effusive rhetoric about ‘new relationships’ and ‘new starts’, his outburst brought yet another bitter reminder of Europe’s enduringly paternalistic and dissonant attitude towards the continent. Decades of European political and military influence in Africa have thereby failed to generate meaningful progress, when they did not actively undermine efforts to do so.

Africans are wise to this and refuse to take it anymore, as evidenced by the growth in anti-French sentiment in west Africa. Russia, China and others, though far from being without reproach, are merely seizing the presented opportunities.

Russia fills the gap

While the share of European Union aid going to Africa has declined significantly, similar problems are afoot in Europe’s relationships with Asia. Its share of southeast-Asian merchandise trade, excluding China, fell by over a third over the last two decades. Western Europe was the destination for less than a tenth of Malaysian, Singaporean, South Korean and Taiwanese exports in 2021.

Russia is again moving quickly to fill the gap, adopting China as its main trading partner, and consistently exporting oil and gas to eager Asian buyers rather than the west. When Russia suspended its double-taxation treaties with ‘unfriendly’ countries around the world in mid-March, most southeast-Asian countries were exempted.

Moreover, Russia has over the last decade become the largest arms supplier to the region, recently running joint naval exercises with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have all rejected imposing sanctions on Moscow, while Malaysia signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia to improve agricultural trade earlier this year.

Imposed power

One cannot fault these nations for engaging in partnerships and co-operation with international partners, in the interest of addressing their most urgent social priorities. Nor can one criticise African and Asian countries for taking with a pinch of salt a discourse on international values when change stems instead from imposed global power.

What lessons can be given about territorial integrity and justice, when the events of 2011 in Libya—in which an aerial intervention led by Britain and France spurred the fall of the leader, Muammar Gaddafi—with their enduring consequences, remain traumatically fresh in African minds? Or when the posture of African countries relative to the war in Ukraine is almost identical to that of Europe vis-à-vis the conflict in the eastern provinces of the DRC?

What lessons should be drawn from European courts proceeding to the seizure of Malaysian assets and properties worth $15 billion—including lucrative oil and gas assets—based on a questionable arbitration authorised by a Spanish arbitrator facing criminal prosecution from the Spanish authorities? And who will really benefit, given that this claim on sovereign territories, derived from a mid-19th-century agreement between a long-vanished sultanate and a colonial-era British company, is funded by unknown third-party investors? The willingness of European courts to confiscate the resources and assets of a sovereign Asian nation on such flimsy grounds is not lost on observers in Africa and across the developing world.

New footing

Relationships between the old and new worlds will continue to be strained as long as underlying assumptions and beliefs do not evolve. Developing nations are not oblivious to the many contradictions between rhetoric and practice in the world as we know it: a system of aid and trade that nourishes the imbalances it purports to address; a discourse on international law that crumbles in the face of past transgressions and current pressures; negotiations on climate finance in which urgency stops where economic interests begin.

The western world can only reverse this trajectory by seeking to put on a genuinely new footing its relations with the countries of Africa and Asia—understanding what a respectful partnership between equally legitimate nations truly entails. This means accepting a due share of responsibility for the current state of affairs, understanding expectations for the future, being willing to make real concessions and aligning discourse with dollars and deeds.

In doing so, the western world would reassure those of us who continue to believe in the promises of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that these were not merely pretences to maintain hegemony in the face of existential threats but rather an enduring vision for a better world which remains worth fighting for.

Jeremy Lissouba
Jérémy Lissouba

Jérémy Lissouba has been a member of parliament in the Republic of Congo for the main opposition party since 2017 and leads his party’s group in the National Assembly. He is a deputy judge in the country’s High Court of Justice and an alumnus of the Obama Foundation’s 2018 Africa Leaders Programme.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u4219834664e04a 8a1e 4ee0 a6f9 bbc30a79d0b1 2 Closing the Chasm: Central and Eastern Europe’s Continued Minimum Wage ClimbCarlos Vacas-Soriano and Christine Aumayr-Pintar
u421983467f bb39 37d5862ca0d5 0 Ending Britain’s “Brief Encounter” with BrexitStefan Stern
u421983485 2 The Future of American Soft PowerJoseph S. Nye
u4219834676d582029 038f 486a 8c2b fe32db91c9b0 2 Trump Can’t Kill the Boom: Why the US Economy Will Roar Despite HimNouriel Roubini
u42198346fb0de2b847 0 How the Billionaire Boom Is Fueling Inequality—and Threatening DemocracyFernanda Balata and Sebastian Mang

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

KU Leuven advertisement

The Politics of Unpaid Work

This new book published by Oxford University Press presents the findings of the multiannual ERC research project “Researching Precariousness Across the Paid/Unpaid Work Continuum”,
led by Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), which are very important for the prospects of a more equal Europe.

Unpaid labour is no longer limited to the home or volunteer work. It infiltrates paid jobs, eroding rights and deepening inequality. From freelancers’ extra hours to care workers’ unpaid duties, it sustains precarity and fuels inequity. This book exposes the hidden forces behind unpaid labour and calls for systemic change to confront this pressing issue.

DOWNLOAD HERE FOR FREE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641