Nigeria has asked for South Africa to back its bid to join Brics and to become a member of the G20, Foreign Affairs Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu said on Monday.
“I would like to mention that Nigeria seeks the support of South Africa with regard to obtaining a full membership of the G20,” she said after the ministerial session of the 11th South African-Nigerian binational commission in Cape Town.
“We also need the support of South Africa for Nigeria to take leading roles in thematic discussions of interest under South Africa’s leadership of the G20.
“In addition, we are also talking about South Africa’s full support for membership of Brics and its new financial institution, the New Development Bank.”
Nigeria last year stated its ambition to join Brics within two years.
It is one of 13 countries that were invited to become Brics partner nations at the bloc’s summit in Russia in October. The others are Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
The summit, the presence of representatives of 36 nations and the expressed wish of several to become full members was used by Russian President Vladimir Putin to signal defiance in the face of Western isolation over the war in Ukraine.
South Africa has resisted this interpretation of Brics and has been lukewarm on further expansion of the bloc, which extended membership to Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates earlier this year. Brazil and India, founding members of Brics, are similarly hesitant.
International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola on Monday downplayed US president-elect Donald Trump’s threat of imposing 100% tariffs on Brics nations should they create a new currency to rival the dollar.
Lamola stressed that South Africa viewed Brics as a developmental platform and has never backed a project of “de-dollarisation”, but saw the benefits of Brics partners trading in their local currencies.
South Africa is expected to work closely with Washington during its presidency of the G20 which it assumed on Sunday, because the US is part of the current G20 troika.
South Africa intends using the G20 presidency to lobby powerful member states for support for Africa’s demand for permanent representation on the United Nations Security Council. Nigeria has been invited to play an active part in workstreams and meetings throughout the year, Lamola confirmed.
Senior officials and diplomats at Monday’s meeting spoke of a sea change in relations between Abuja and Pretoria, after years of tension and regional competition.
The bilateral commission has produced a draft memorandum of understanding on cooperation on crime, defence and cooperation in the mining sector, but it is understood that Lamola and Odumegwu-Ojukwu devoted much time to discussing the 17-month civil war in Sudan.
She said Nigeria was seeking South Africa’s help in bringing the warring parties to the negotiating table.
“We need South Africa’s support in the mediation, the ad hoc mediation committee on Sudan in the AU [African Union], of which our president, his excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a member,” she said.
“We are strongly committed to seeking a resolution to the crisis in Sudan, in this guise we seek South Africa’s support to further accelerate the peace process and to ensure that within our region conflicts are de-escalated.”
Tinubu was due to hold bilateral talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa in Cape Town and Sudan is expected to be high on the agenda.
Peace initiatives have so far yielded no progress towards a ceasefire. Nigerian officials on Monday privately said a concerted African-led effort was needed to end a conflict that has displaced 10 million people and poses the risk of lasting regional instability.
The 11th binational commission also saw a call for South Africa to shore up peace efforts on Sudan