Russia-China

This report is part III of Delphi Global's ongoing report series on the Russia-China dynamic in Africa

Latin America has become a central arena of technological and geopolitical competition between China, Russia, and the United States. China has dramatically expanded its influence through trade, infrastructure, telecom networks, and digital technologies, while Russia has pursued a more limited strategy focused on military cooperation, information operations, and authoritarian partnerships.

China and Russia have increasingly been grouped together as revisionist powers interested and intent on expanding influence across Africa. Both challenge Western political influence, cultivate relationships with authoritarian governments, and present themselves as alternatives to Western partnership models.

Africa matters to both Russia and China now more than at any time in recent decades. For Russia to blunt isolation and profit from insecurity; for China to consolidate an alternative global order and protect long-term investments.

For Russia and China, beneath the surface of the diplomatic pleasantries, joint military exercises, and staged leadership summits lie deep incompatibilities and increasingly widening contradictions in several domains- territorial, geopolitical, economic, technological, and military. These historical fractures and grievances challenge the sustainability of their alliance while revealing their underlying rivalry.