Frans Cronje is a South African independent political and economic advisor and former think tank director of the South African Institute Of Race Relations (IRR).
Southern Atlantic
The southern Atlantic is a strategically important region for a number of reasons.
It is a major shipping route for goods and people traveling between Europe, Africa, South America and Asia.
It is also a major route for oil and gas tankers, which transport energy resources from the Middle East to Europe and Asia.
It is home to important natural resources, including oil, gas, diamonds and fish, all of which are vital to the economies of many countries in the region, such as my home country, South Africa.
BRICS and beyond
The United States’s unipolar dominance is fragmenting and other (BRICS) countries, such as China and India, are playing an increasingly important role in a multipolar emergence.
In the view of Frans, the southern Atlantic is likely to be a key battleground in the competition for influence between these major powers.
Conversation
Frans gave an overview of how he views the chess game being played from the perspective of South Africa and western Africa, as well as South America and the Falkland Islands.
He then moved northwards towards Europe and China (and the fight for energy dominance), including the ramifications of the West and its Russia-Ukraine proxy wars.
The rise of the BRICS economies is one of the most significant economic phenomena of our time.
Jim O’Neill, Former Chairman of Goldman Sachs
