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Yellen lauds S.Africa’s energy shift, avoids mentioning Russia
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nited States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday lauded South Africa’s “bold” participation in the so-called Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) backed by the US and other Western nations, but steered clear of mentioning US concerns about Pretoria’s planned military drills with China and Russia.
Yellen spoke to reporters alongside South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in Pretoria on the third leg of her nearly two-week tour of Africa, coming just days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited South Africa, Reuters reported.
In prepared remarks, Yellen welcomed Godongwana’s “cooperation and insightful views” in their talks so far and said she planned to raise several issues, including Zambia’s stalled sovereign debt restructuring effort, given South Africa’s key role on the country’s creditor committee.
“The United States strongly values our relationship with South Africa,” Yellen said in remarks that included no mention of Russia or China, or White House concerns about Pretoria’s plans to hold joint military drills with both countries.
The US Treasury issued no statement about Yellen’s closed-door meeting on Wednesday with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, a meeting described by Pretoria as a “courtesy call”.
South Africa has remained one of Moscow’s most important allies on a continent divided over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Yellen’s trip kicked off a yearlong charm offensive of US top leader visits to Africa, aimed at deepening US economic ties with the continent and countering China’s long dominance of trade and lending with many African nations.
Throughout her visit, Yellen emphasized the right of countries to choose their trading partners while pitching the greater transparency and lasting nature of engagement with the US.
The treasury secretary, who met with South Africa’s central bank governor later on Thursday, singled out South Africa’s JETP, which was backed in late 2021 by the US, Great Britain, France, Germany and the European Union.
They pledged a combined US$8.5 billion to accelerate South Africa’s transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but the total bill will be much higher.
“This partnership represents South Africa’s bold first step toward expanding electricity access and reliability and creating a low carbon and climate resilient economy,” Yellen said, adding that it would “alleviate the deep fiscal strain the energy sector is putting on South Africa’s economy”.
Food security
Earlier on Tuesday, Yellen also called for urgent and climate-resilient steps to boost food security in Africa in the wake of a changing climate as she toured Zambia, AFP reported.
Wrapping up her two-day visit to the southern African nation, Yellen said the climate change-fueled severity and frequency of storms, floods and droughts had hurt agricultural yields on the continent.
“We must take urgent action to adapt agricultural practices and technology to the changing climate,” she said during a tour of a project that assists small-scale farmers better manage the impacts of changing weather patterns.
The project, situated some 40 kilometers from the capital Lusaka, is bankrolled by the Green Climate Fund, which has received $1 billion from the US government.
She said the US was giving priority to “innovative projects”, including supplying farmers with seeds that are more resilient to droughts, heat and extreme conditions.
Yellen slammed Russia’s “unprovoked war of aggression against its neighbor [which] has hurt Africa by exacerbating existing food insecurity and creating an unnecessary drag on the continent’s economy”.
