Equatorial Guinea opens the door to the Gulf of Guinea and Central Africa to Putin

2023-11-04 12:15:27

Teodoro Obiang met with Vladimir Putin this Thursday in Moscow, and for the followers of the Guinean dictator it must have been a resounding success that he met with a leader of Putin’s world fame. Pro-Russian accounts such as ElTanoCast indicated on their walls that the meeting means “very good times for Africa,” while some emphasize that Putin is marking the first steps that will lead to a new rapprochement with another African region.

During his meeting with Obiang, the Russian wanted to mention the mineral wealth of Equatorial Guinea (gold, gas, oil, uranium) and the “serious interest” that Russian mining companies have in collaborating in its extraction. The Guinean, for his part, urged Russia to strengthen military collaboration between both countries: “I would like us to strengthen cooperation in security and defense, since Russia has been supporting Equatorial Guinea.” With the latter, Obiang was referring to the closer relations with Russia in recent years: in 2020, his first-born son, Teodoro Nguema, visited Moscow with the intention of “delivering a letter” addressed to Putin and written by the Guinean president, highlighting then in an interview given to Sputnik Equatorial Guinea’s interest in opening avenues of cooperation with the Russians. President Obiang also went to Saint Petersburg for the Second Russia-Africa Summit this August, and the examples continue.

The closeness in relations between both nations can strain, especially in the United States, given its association with the Obiang regime. From Washington they have allowed the development of their authoritarianism in favor of beneficial trade agreements (linked to the exploration and extraction of oil), although they have already begun a distancing by expressing “serious doubts” regarding the legitimacy of the presidential elections in Equatorial Guinea in November 2022. Has Russia’s time come in this small African nation? Is Moscow really looking to penetrate Central Africa as it already did in the Sahel? Is the appointment with the patriarch a kind of starting signal?

The door is open. Moscow maintains a recognized influence in the Central African Republic and strong historical ties with Angola, allies at the extremes of the region that could help it close the grip, just as the presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Namibia have shown in recent months a fatigue against Europe. The president of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi, even publicly told Macron that Europe and France “must stop treating us.” [a los africanos] with a paternalistic tone”, and harshly criticized the French press. On the other hand, the presence of authoritarianisms already established in the region and that see their relations subject to the double moral standards of the West, which just as it supports a government, sanctions it the following year, serves as an incentive for DRC, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea…

Both leaders also decided within the framework of the meeting to reopen the Russian embassy in Malabo. Obiang stressed that it was “a very important decision, since it will lead to the political development, not only of Equatorial Guinea, but of Central Africa, since it faces security problems in the Gulf of Guinea.”

Bread crumbs that lead to the sirloin. The Gulf of Guinea produces enormous quantities of oil each year but is also one of the most beneficial maritime trade centers on the continent. The ports of Lagos, Douala, Accra and Abidjan converge here: according to data provided by the EU maritime security services, 1,500 fishing boats, cargo ships and oil tankers cross its waters every day. Knowing that Vladimir Putin agreed in February to build a military port on the Sudanese coast of the Red Sea (although the current civil war in Sudan could jeopardize the project) and that he has managed to annex Wagner’s operations in the port of Douala , in Cameroon, after the death of Prigozhin, as well as maintaining a strong influence over the ports of Madagascar since 2018 and three days ago seemed to sign the deal that would give it full access to the port of Bata, knowing this information, it can be drawn the map of Putin’s political influence on the coasts of Africa.

That Obiang mentions the Gulf of Guinea is no coincidence. Subsidized pro-Russian groups are already known in Ghana, according to a recent report by the African Report, by Simeon Boikov (known online as Aussie Cossack) with the intention of organizing demonstrations in favor of an association with Russia. A maritime ambition that the Russians toyed with when they participated in joint naval exercises with South Africa in February 2023.

Western presence in African waters

The maritime hegemony of the United States and Europe on the continent plays against them. The Yankees have the Sixth Fleet to defend their interests in African and European waters, and the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) is a unified military command for the entire continent that was devised by senior naval officers in 2006, and which is currently managed by a Marine general. The Kremlin has against it that the American presence goes back decades. European navies also have roots in African waters. The European mission Atalanta has been fighting piracy in the Horn of Africa since 2008, as the Spanish ship “Audaz” participated in maneuvers in Ghana last March, etc.

With regard to Europe and the seas that bathe Africa that the Russian craves, the Mediterranean today bustles with patrol boats of the Civil Guard and the Italian Coast Guard after years dominated by the European empires and bouts of Berber piracy, it is impregnable for Putin. As a final curiosity, the press appearance prior to the meeting between the two dictators concluded after Obiang said “well, I don’t know if I can continue, because the press is…”, to which Vladimir Putin replied with a smile that “it is Well, okay, we will continue without the press.” And the curtain was drawn for the world.