Chinese, Iranian and Russians in naval drills off SA coast

Warships from Iran and Russia have joined naval exercises being held off the coast of South Africa, risking a further deterioration of relations between Africa’s largest economy and the US.

Two ships from Iran — the destroyer Jamaran and the warship Mahdavai — have arrived at Simon’s Town, outside Cape Town, as has the Russian destroyer Stoikiy, the South African National Defence Force said in a statement late Friday.

Read: South Africa hosts Brics naval exercise, risks renewed US ire

Ships from China, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates are also participating.

The exercise comes as South Africa struggles to mend fences with the US, its second-biggest trading partner after China, amid criticism from the Trump administration about its close relations with Iran, Russia and China.

Previous iterations of the military exercises, organised under the aegis of the Brics bloc of developing nations, have drawn rebukes from Washington. In 2023, they coincided with the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The US this week seized an oil tanker sailing away from Venezuelan waters bearing the Russian flag, and has told Iran’s leaders that if they crack down too heavily on protests over living conditions in Tehran and other cities, the US will respond.

“It is not for the first time that they will be doing this exercise with friendly countries,” Bantu Holomisa, South Africa’s deputy defense minister, said in an interview with Johannesburg-based Newzroom Afrika television channel earlier this week.

“This thing was planned a long time before” the current tensions, he said.

Observer status

South Africa tried to persuade Iran, which is confronting mass protests at home, to downgrade its participation in the naval exercises to observer status, News24, a South African website, reported on Friday, citing government officials who weren’t identified.

The “Will for Peace” operation runs through 16 January and is being led by China, which has sent two ships. South Africa and the UAE each have one vessel participating. Indonesia, Brazil, Egypt and Ethiopia, a landlocked nation, have sent observers, officials said at a live-screened opening ceremony on Saturday.

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While similar exercises have been held off South Africa in the past, they were confined to the host nation along with Russia and China. The Brics bloc — which until 2024 consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — has now expanded to include a total of 11 nations.

The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s second-biggest political party, said the inclusion of Russia and Iran in the drills would undermine the government’s claims that it was non-aligned, and noted that it had canceled joint military exercises with the US.

South Africa has said the drills are aimed at improving cooperation and the safety of key maritime routes for cargo ships. As tensions have simmered in the Middle East over the past few years, many ships have been directed away from the Suez Canal and have instead traveled around the Cape of Good Hope, near Cape Town on the southern tip of the African continent.

© 2026 Bloomberg

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