The multi-national “Will for Peace 2026” naval exercises began Saturday off the coast of Cape Town, hosted by South Africa, and is set to run for one week. It is widely being described as a BRICS and “BRICS+” naval drill and saw a Russian warship arrive off South Africa’s primary naval base on Friday.

The Russians joined Chinese and Iranian vessels for the drills, along with other BRICS members Indonesia, Ethiopia and Brazil – which participated as observers. The nation heading up the drill is China, and it’s being seen as an attempt of BRICS and Global South countries to flex their collective military might in the wake of the Trump-ordered ousting of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. The other members of the bloc – India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia – are not represented at the drills.

Naturally it is especially Iran which could be a ripe target for the next Trump regime change action, as it’s not yet gone nuclear. But Tehran wants to showcase its much more powerful nuclear-armed friends China and Russia, which have defense and economic cooperation agreements with the Islamic Republic.

South Africa’s defense force has described that the exercises will allow participating navies “to exchange best practices and improve joint operational capabilities, which contributes to the safety of shipping routes and overall regional maritime stability.”

This will make already somewhat strained relations with Washington even more delicate for Pretoria. With this US relationship in mind, a separate statement emphasized that the drills were organized and agreed to significantly before last weekend’s US strikes on Venezuela.

But tensions have ratcheted particularly after Washington expelled South Africa’s ambassador last year and slapped the country with 30% trade tariffs. The Trump administration has also long complained about violent persecution against South Africa’s minority White farmer population.

BBC provides some further background as follows:

Some commentators have questioned why Brics+ members are carrying out military exercises together, given the grouping is an economic alliance. “There are members of Brics+ that are diametrically opposed to each other politically and even have hot border skirmishes between them,” defence analyst Dean Wingrin told the BBC.

It is not the first time South Africa has had naval exercises with China and Russia. The first was called “Mosi”, which means “smoke” in South Africa’s Tswana language, and took place in 2019 with little fanfare.

🇿🇦⚓️ Multinational naval exercises “Will for Peace 2026” have begun in SA’s territorial waters.

Based in Simon’s Town, the drills involve navies of China and South Africa, with ships from Russia and Iran participating.

The exercises focus on maritime security & safe navigation. pic.twitter.com/LvRUNy5MQV

— Russian Embassy in South Africa 🇷🇺 (@EmbassyofRussia) January 9, 2026

But as for wanting to distance itself from being seen as ‘too close’ to China and Russia, a South African Defense Ministry official has described to AFP, “Let us not press panic buttons because the USA has got a problem with countries,” and that “Those are not our enemies” – in vague reference to the US and Western alliance.

“Let’s focus on cooperating with the BRICS countries and make sure that our seas, especially the Indian Ocean and Atlantic, they are safe,” the official added.