Apart from the nuclear plant pact, Egypt and Russia also penned agreements to improve investment and the natural gas business, as well as create a Russian industrial zone along the Suez Canal.
In September last year, Russia signed a $10billion nuclear power cooperation deal with South Africa, paving the way for the building of up to 9.6 Giga watts of nuclear power based on Russian technology by 2030.
“This agreement opens up the door for South Africa to access Russian technologies, funding, infrastructure, and provides proper and solid platform for future extensive collaboration,” South African energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said on the sidelines of a International Atomic Energy conference in Vienna.
Kirienko of Rosatom revealed deal would involve the construction of up to 8 nuclear power units.
China’s Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corp, Toshiba Corp and Korea Electric Power Corp were among companies that were widely reported as showing interest in securing the nuclear deal.
Russia has also had deep forays with oil producing Africa nations such as Algeria, Libya and Nigeria triggering a debate of its resurgence in Africa after an overall decline post the Soviet Union era.
Russia’s Rosatom in 2011 signed a draft agreement with Nigeria to develop a nuclear power plant. Kremlin penned a similar inter-governmental agreement with Algeria in 2014 to establish a nuclear power plant.
“In recent times we are seeing a renewed fervor in Russo-African relations, perhaps buoyed by the temperament and adventurism of the current President Putin. What is clear is that Africa has been put back in focus of Russian foreign and economic policy,” Tunde Oyateru, a political communication consultant in Nairobi told AFKInsider.
Some analysts however said sub-Sahara is witnessing an overall scramble for its energy resources, especially by emerging global economies, the BRICS (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa) attracted by the numerous new discoveries y of oil and gas reserves mainly in east and West Africa.
“Whilst companies from the global north have traditionally been strong players in the Sub-Saharan energy sector, new ones from emerging economies– not only from China’s state-owned enterprises but also Brazilian and South African giants amongst others – are now also taking part in the scramble for the region’s energy resources” Sören Scholvin says in the forward of a new book published by researchers at the South African Institute of International Affairs(SAIIF) and titled: A New Scramble for Africa? The Rush for Energy Resources in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Some critics however warned that Russia’s renewed dalliance with Africa may go beyond the historical Cold-War games and have mixed implications.
“While the web of strategic access and other ties that Russia has been reconstituting and expanding in Africa does not necessarily presage a return to a zero-sum Cold War competition across the continent, the long-term implications of these engagements should nonetheless be of concern to Africans and non-Africans alike,” the US-based Foundation for Defence of Democracies however warns in a commentary on March 5, 2015.
