Russian media had reported that Russia will fire its new generation “Zircon” hypersonic missile during the exercises. But Russian naval commander Oleg Gladkiy insisted on Wednesday that the weapon “will not be used in the context of these exercises”.

Hypersonic missiles, considered particularly violent weapons that fly between five and 25 times the speed of sound, have been used by Russian forces at various points in the war in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Gladkiy said “there is no hidden meaning in the exercises we are performing”. His remarks came soon after a small yacht that flew Ukraine’s flag sailed by the Admiral Gorshkov in Cape Town’s harbour in protest, while a group gathered outside the Russian embassy in Pretoria to demonstrate against the drills.

Gladkiy said the exercises were planned to take place from February 25 to 27 and involve ships firing artillery and performing tactical manoeuvres at sea.

Aside from the Admiral Gorshkov, Russia is deploying a seagoing tanker during the naval drills, code-named “Mosi 2”, which means smoke in the Tswana language.

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China’s contribution includes the guided missile destroyer Huainan, the frigate Rizhao and the supply ship Kekexilihu. The naval group has just finished an escort mission in the Gulf of Aden.

South Africa has deployed a frigate and two support ships.

The first such exercise, Mosi 1, took place in December 2019 off the coast of Cape Town. Mosi 2 is a few days longer and involves four more vessels.

“The military exercise in South Africa this time also falls under the framework of the BRICS association, and it is normal to strengthen mutual cooperation around the security field,” Song said.

The BRICS bloc includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Song said Russia, China and South Africa were more concerned about non-traditional security fields.

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But Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies at Washington’s National Defence University, said China was sending a clear signal.

“[It is a signal] that it is taking its military engagement with African countries to a higher level, with a greater number of advanced and new surface combatants and longer duration-training,” he said.

Nantulya said China was responding to pressure from African countries to resume in-person military training, exchanges and education following the end of its zero-Covid restrictions.

But for China, the military exercise was also seen as “low-hanging-fruit”, since its navy had already been taking part in anti-piracy patrols in African waters, operations the PLA has been taking part in since 2008.

But Russia’s goals were quite different and less systematic and comprehensive than China’s, he said.

“The Kremlin basically wants to prove to the world that it can still conduct international relations on a major scale, despite incurring heavy international sanctions that have basically frozen it out of critical parts of the international system,” Nantulya said.

“It also wants to show off some of the combat capabilities it has been using to punish Ukrainian citizens and destroy civilian infrastructure, although it seems these weapons have been ineffective from a purely military standpoint.”

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As for South Africa, Nantulya said, its goals were more political, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) wanting to signal that it stood ready to indulge its historical allies in the struggle against apartheid and colonialism.

“There is a basic anti-colonialist ideological strand that runs deep in the ANC, not to mention that the top echelon of South Africa’s political and military establishment consists of a deep bench of leaders, officials and policymakers that received their formative training in the Soviet Union, other Soviet republics, East Germany, China, and Cuba,” Nantulya said.

For South Africa’s government, the ability to bring the two major militaries to train in its backyard for a second time also sends a message to African neighbours that it can stand up to Western pressure, according to Nantulya.

Priyal Singh, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, said for Russia “this is an opportunity for it to signal to the West that, despite their best efforts at isolation, Moscow does have a broader, diverse network of international partners beyond the West”.

And for South Africa, Singh said “the exercise illustrates the country’s ongoing efforts to not be pulled into broader geopolitical contestations between competing international great powers”.

According to Francois Vreÿ, a research coordinator at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa at Stellenbosch University, China is playing the long game and can be more diplomatic given its array of hard and soft tools.

Russia, however, faces very different challenges. “Russia does not have time or economic clout so it must use more coercive means to influence audiences and potential partners. The naval opportunity is one that Russia grabbed with both hands and a top of the range naval vessel,” Vreÿ said.

South Africa’s relatively neutral stance towards Russia’s actions in Ukraine allows Russia to send a message to critics while at the same time openly flaunting its modern naval platform on a global stage.

“I presume Russia is testing the waters, and has the most to gain to get breathing space, while China wants to maintain the Mosi-South Africa commitment, and South Africa has to show relevance as the almost insignificant member of BRICS as an economic entity. Hosting Mosi with two superpowers is one way to build its image as a BRICS player,” Vreÿ said.

Cedric de Coning, a research professor at a peace, conflict and development research group at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, said BRICS had been established as a counterweight to what the members saw as the US-led Western hegemony of the global economic and political system.

“An exercise of this kind is meant to signal that BRICS cooperation towards this aim is ongoing, and that it stretches across many sectors, including defence cooperation,” de Coning said.

South Africa’s Western partners were probably disappointed, as they would have liked South Africa not to go ahead with such an exercise involving Russia at this time, de Coning said.

Additional reporting by Minnie Chan