Russia-China Friendship Makes West 'Fear': South African Expert on Role of Two Countries in World

The "very serious friendship" between Russia and China is "likely to last long" and makes the West afraid, Koffi Kouakou, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Africa-China Studies, University of Johannesburg, told Sputnik Africa.

"[The rapprochement between China and Russia] is not even a rapprochement anymore. It's a very serious friendship between Russia and China. And it's most likely to last long. [...] The combination of these two nations makes them fearsome, powerful, and very strong to deal with, and that's the fear of most Western countries. In part, they're right, because they themselves felt the guilt for having abused power for so many centuries," he said.

But why are Western countries so afraid? According to Kouakou, they fear losing their dominant position in the world.

"They [the Western countries] now start to see two rising powers that represent a challenge to the [West's] hegemonic postures across the world for many centuries, and that's what really concerns them," he explained.

Moreover, these postures of Western countries are not only "hegemonic" but also "aggressive," and, unlike China and Russia, do not aim to build peace and prosperity around the globe.

"But the West largely seems to be having a posture of aggression all the time. They seem to [be causing] more violence, more destruction and more chaos in the world, [...] seeing China and Russia doing well for peace and stability in the world. And [the latter] is what the rest of the world is looking for, and nothing else," Kouakou said.

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Furthermore, during his visit to China, the Russian leader stated that 90% of all payments between Russia and China are made in rubles and yuan. This, as Kouakou pointed out, indicates the decreasing role of the US dollar in global trade.

"[It] shows a significant and powerful shift away from the [US] dollar as the sort of hegemonic currency in the world. [...] This is a very, very powerful indicator that the relationships, at least trade relationship, increase in growth between Russia and China is also setting the path to potential de-dollarization and the weakening of the US dollar as an international powerful currency," Kouakou noted.

Equally important is that the example set by China and Russia will help other countries, particularly African nations, to expand their currency baskets, which in turn will lead to lower costs in various areas.

"[...] African countries, if they're smart enough to find ways to augment the basket of currency transaction with obviously other nations, [...] it helps them to reduce their costs, not only in terms of finding US dollars, but also sometimes the interest rate on the lending practices for using the US dollar as a key or unique transaction currency in Africans. We'll have a chance and opportunity to reduce the risks of financial dependency on the US dollar," the speaker said.

Last but not least, Kouakou touched upon the aggressive statements made by Western leaders and how they affect the possible peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. He pointed out that such rhetoric will only worsen the situation and delay the conclusion of a peace treaty.

"[Western leaders] will inflame the situation. [...] The inflamed statements [are] continuously [followed up] with weapons [and] money to support more and more aggressive Ukraine. And that will be really unfortunate because it seems [like] a long way to peace," he concluded.