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Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Author : M. Petrakov
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of South
Africa
AT FIRST SIGHT, Russia and South Africa are located so far from
each other and are so different from each other, and yet they have
much in common, including their immense, boundless spaces, a rich
cultural diversity of different regions, and the thorny historical paths.
Although in February 2017 we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the
establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations, it should not go un-
spoken that the history of Russian-South African contacts dates back
several centuries.
For many years to come, it was rather an epistolary novel or a collec-
tion of travel writing, and our interaction was limited to sporadic visits
of Cape Town by Russian navy servicemen or researchers. Special
mention should be made in this context of Captain Vassily Golovnin who became famous for
his daring escape from arrest by British authorities from the Cape Town port in 1808 (on board
the Diana sloop). The contacts gradually developed, and in the second half of the 19th century,
our Russian consul was already working in Cape Town.
The agenda of our cooperation with South Africa demonstrate not only the strategic nature of
our partnership and the current high level of interstate interaction on a broad range of issues,
but also a great potential for their further development.
The Soviet citizens could easily get to know about everyday life in South Africa: South African
writers and poets, including those who were banned and oppressed by their own government,
were widely published in our country.
In the 1980s-1990s, the processes of internal transformations underway in the Republic of South
Africa and the USSR also affected bilateral relations. The level of interaction between Moscow
and Pretoria began to grow at a quick pace.
A milestone event was the official visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to South Africa in
2006; it was the first ever visit to sub-Saharan Africa of a Russian leader. During the visit, the
parties signed a Treaty of Friendship and Partnership between our two countries, laying down a
political foundation of bilateral interaction at the present stage.
Over the past few years, the volume and quality of bilateral ties in the field of culture have sig-
nificantly grown. Russian music, ballet and dance groups are enthusiastically met by the South
African public. After a serious preliminary work by both sides, the cross-cultural years of Russian
culture in South Africa and of South Africa in Russia were held in Johannesburg and Moscow
in 2016 - the first of their kind in the new history of bilateral relations. The Osipov State Russian
Folk Orchestra performed in the cities of South Africa, while Russian cities warmly welcomed
The 25th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations
Between Russia and South Africa