The GCC and the BRICS in Sub-Saharan Africa. Is China the main driver?

LECHINI, GLADYS; DUSSORT, MARIA NOEL

Cambridge

Workshop; Gulf Research Meeting, Workshop number: 3 The Gulf Cooperation Council and the BRICS?.; 2015

Gulf Research Meeting

It is known that this is not their first move towards Africa, as they arrived in the continent in the late sixties or early seventies: Russia and China did so in a context of Cold War, India as an historical Indian Ocean neighbour, Brazil in the frame of South-South Cooperation and South Africa, as a symbol of white colonial domination. Meanwhile the GCC states went to Africa to ask for support for the Palestinian cause, promising oil and loans in exchange, in a context of complex interdependence. The various difficulties most of these countries experienced in the eighties and nineties pushed them out of Africa for almost two decades. Now they are all back. The BRICS came again in search of raw materials and markets, to fulfil the needs of their process of capitalist expansion. The GCC countries have also returned with their interest in food and oil.Therefore, our purpose is to analyze the opportunities and challenges the GCC countries face in their landing in Africa taking into consideration their strategic location and their hub capacities, as the present scenario has placed them in a crossroad. They could act as a pivot between Sub-Saharan African countries and Beijing, being China the emerging country and the BRICS member with major interests both in Africa and in the Gulf, acting therefore in a cooperative manner. Or they could suffer from the negative effects of the BRICS and mainly China?s influence in the region with a competitive strategy. To sum up, they could be a hinge in a triangle relation, with mutual benefits to the GCC and China or a mere conveyor belt to promote Chinese interests in Africa due to the proximity and their financial facilities. In order to explain the relations between these three groupings, we examine the mains characteristics of these clusters of countries. Then we analyse the economic relations between GCC countries and Sub-Saharan African states? in light of China?s increasing influence in the African continent and examine whether GCC countries and China have opposing or cooperative interests in the African countries. Finally, we advance three possible scenarios which could describe the future relations of these groupings.