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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Soviet Foreign Policy with Regard to South Africa |
Author: | Porzgen, Gemma |
Year: | 1991 |
Periodical: | South Africa International |
Volume: | 21 |
Issue: | 3 |
Period: | January |
Pages: | 165-172 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | South Africa Soviet Union |
Subjects: | foreign policy international relations |
Abstract: | An opening up of diplomatic ties between South Africa and the Soviet Union is imminent. Soviet officials are investigating the possibility of establishing official diplomatic links with South Africa. This change in Soviet foreign policy towards South Africa cannot be separated from the changes in Soviet foreign policy in general and towards the Third World in particular. First indications of the change in Soviet foreign policy towards South Africa emerged from discussions held with Soviet Africa experts, especially at the Africa Institute in Moscow. After the riots of 1986, which took place beyond the control of the ANC, South Africa was no longer seen as the country with the best prospects for a socialist revolution. Soviet experts have begun to see South Africa as a regional power and to take its economic importance seriously. Visits to each other in South Africa and the USSR and meetings between Soviet and South African academics, which are taking place currently, enriched the emerging dialogue between Soviets and South Africans. A problem is the relationship between the USSR and the ANC. The Soviet Union has been the most important supporter of the ANC. However, relations with the ANC have been worsening since Oliver Tambo's visit to Moscow in March 1989. Towards the end of 1989, the USSR stopped exporting weapons to the ANC's military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. Ref. |