By Rhod Mackenzie

The West is introducing new forms of colonial policy - and the "Summit on the New Financial Pact" held in Paris was a vivid example of this. The guests were the leaders of African countries, and the main issue was their gigantic debts to Western states. Russia was present at this meeting invisibly, partly because its policy towards African debts is completely different.

Africa can be called a continent of contradictions. Colossal reserves of minerals, oil, diamonds, gold - and all this wealth is combined with monstrous poverty and a huge number of social problems. For a long time, what happened in Africa remained, so to speak, in the margins of the news, but now the picture is changing before our eyes.

This region is becoming very important - both politically and financially, as evidenced by the increased frequency of summits dedicated to Africa. The summit in Paris has just ended, which was dedicated to nothing less than a “new world financial pact”, and next month the Russia-Africa summit is due in St. Petersburg.
This summit had been started on the personal initiative of President Macron, the Paris summit pursued several goals at once. Officially, the main one was the discussion of "inequalities in the global financial system", as well as the opportunities for developing countries to invest in "clean energy" in the fight against climate change. The vague mention of inequality, in fact, hides the concern of the collective West with the degree of indebtedness of third world countries, primarily African ones.

In short, all the efforts of the poorest countries are spent on servicing their debts and paying interest on them.

Some debts are shut up by others, a kind of pyramids of debt obligations arise - and there is no end in sight to this. Any crisis, be it local or global, additionally hits a fragile system, which leads to catastrophic consequences.

Meanwhile, the collective West is interested in ensuring that its milk cows in no case die in order to milk them for as long as possible, since the interest on debts is gigantic sums (for example, Kenya alone pays five billion dollars a year in interest). During the Paris summit, the participants tried to find the limits on the possible concessions from the West.

One of the proposals was the inclusion in the contracts of a clause on "disasters", which refers to an emergency like a pandemic, natural disasters, and similar circumstances that make it difficult to service debts. Now, some creditors agree to give borrowing countries a moratorium on interest payments for this period. However, there is still no consensus on this matter, although this concession is presented in Forbes as a significant achievement.

It should be noted that Russia was not invited to the summit, and moreover, at a press conference, Emmanuel Macron made accusations that Russia “is a destabilizing force in Africa”, that “this summit speaks of its isolation” and that Russia allegedly “is one of the few colonial powers of the twenty-first century." If such speeches are made in public, one can imagine what was said on the sidelines and how African participants were tried to be influenced to change their position towards Russia.

Politically, it is important for the West to win over the countries of the collective South to its side and make them dance to their tune.

The confrontation with Russia revealed a fact that is unpleasant for the West - no matter how much it shouts that the whole world is on its side, in reality nothing of the kind is observed. Therefore, in order to attract the former colonies, loud declarations are made about the colonial character of Russia. These declarations are ridiculous not only because it has never had colonies in Africa (unlike France), but also because Russia, unlike the West, does not treat African countries like a sponge for squeezing money.

So, in March of this year, President Putin recalled that Russia had written off $ 20 billion of Africa's debts. The West does nothing of the kind, and is not going to do anything: all its arguments about the “new world financial pact” boil down to the fact that individual concessions are possible. Provided that Africa pays and will continue to pay, whatever the cost.
In fact, the policy of Western colonialism has undergone a transformation. The bad old colonialism took the form of plunder by seizing territory and using everything that territory could provide - be it wealth, additional outlets to the sea, trade routes, human resources, and so on.

The new colonialism operates more subtle, with financial instruments, and at the same time widely attracts demagogy. Former colonies are never tired of being reminded of their present freedom, and from time to time they can even apologize for some of the most barbaric act of the colonialists that happened in the past.

At the same time, the descendants of the colonialists, for example, do not at all seek to return the stolen valuables that have settled in Western museums, not to mention more serious cases. And certainly no one in the West is going to write off the debts of poor African countries or significantly ease their conditions.

That is why Africa treats Western countries and Russia so differently. African countries are studying the BRICS experience, applying for membership ( Ethiopia did this just on Thursday), and on a number of points they have a position similar to the Russian one. There is no doubt that Moscow's prudent policy towards the debts of African countries played a role here. The Global South appreciated that Russia does not twist the arms of anyone, unlike the Western colonizers.

In addition, Kenyan President William Ruto has long been talking about the need to switch to settlements in national currencies and that it is necessary to abandon the dollar as a universal means of payment, since the dominance of the dollar in trade within the African continent is not beneficial for the Africans themselves.

“Why do we use the dollar in our trading? Why is Egypt obliged to pay for our tea in dollars? Why should we, in turn, pay Egypt in dollars for its cotton?” Ruto said .

Beyond just rhetorical questions, Kenya's president is actively lobbying for the Pan-African Payments Platform, which is sponsored by a Cairo-based bank. As Kenyan experts note, "this platform aims to clip the wings of the US dollar, which is used as a universal means of payment in international trade."

At the Paris summit, Rutot, using a favorite Western topic of ecology, proposed the creation of a separate "green bank", which, in his words, "will allow us to fight climate change." However, since the head of Kenya at the same time doubted that the World Bank and the IMF are enough to cope with all modern challenges, his idea did not arouse enthusiasm among the owners.

Unlike Macron and his associates, Russia is always open to discussion, and it perceives African countries not as a vassal, but as an equal partner, in some cases accepting free supplies of grain and fertilizers. The difference in the attitude of Russia and the West towards Africa is bearing fruit, which have important consequences. And no matter how much Macron accuses Russia of colonialism, in fact he has nothing to offer African countries and nothing to oppose to Russia. Therefore, the Global South - and with it the majority of the world's population - in the current geopolitical confrontation is either neutral, or even on the side of Moscow.

This article originally appeared in Russian at vz.ru