Beijing to appoint Horn of Africa envoy
In Kenya, Chinese minister promises new contributions to Africa’s development
China will appoint a special envoy for Horn of Africa affairs, a move hailed by experts as showing the country’s responsibility of being a major country and its constructive role in the conflicttorn region.
The proposal was part of the “Initiative of Peaceful Development in the Horn of Africa” which was announced by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday after he held talks with Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Raychelle Omamo.
China was ready to propose the initiative to support regional countries in addressing security, development and governance challenges, Wang said, as the Horn of Africa has in recent years experienced conflicts and confrontation.
The Horn of Africa is located on the easternmost part of the African mainland.
Wang said conflicts hampered the region’s “tremendous potential for development” and “such a situation should not be allowed to continue”.
Wang suggested that the Horn of Africa should strengthen intraregional dialogue, stay out of the geopolitical competition between major countries and hold the region’s fate in its own hands.
He proposed holding a peace conference, adding that China would provide necessary support to this process by appointing a special envoy.
“Appointing a special envoy is a shared aspiration of China and countries in the region,” said Li Wentao, deputy director of the Institute of African Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
China responded to African countries’ appeals as the situation in the region was getting more complicated, and meanwhile countries in the Horn of Africa trusted China and believed it could help mediate and resolve regional contradiction with a just and fair attitude, Li added.
Li also noted that China’s special envoy could engage in shuttle diplomacy in the region and contribute China’s wisdom and approach to solving problems.
Wang said that countries in the region should accelerate regional revitalization and explore effective ways to overcome governance challenges, saying that China supported the region’s countries in seeking development paths that suit their own national conditions.
Wang called on countries in the region to properly handle various ethnic, religious and regional disputes in an African way, and build a united, stable and harmonious environment for development in the Horn of Africa.
Zeng Aiping, deputy director of the Department for Developing Countries Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, lauded the initiative as an inclusive one, saying it would form synergies to promote peace and development.
He said China never imposed its model on others but encouraged the Horn of Africa to strengthen exchanges on national governance, share useful experiences with each other, and overcome governance bottlenecks.
Six hundred years later, following the footprints of Zheng He, Chinese engineers and technicians have arrived in Mombasa and Africa again and built the best roads, best railways and best oil and gas facilities for local people.”
Wang Yi, Chinese state councilor and foreign minister
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta paid homage to sincere bilateral friendship during a joint inspection of a major oil terminal project built by China in the African nation, with Wang promising closer cooperation to contribute more to Africa’s development.
The $353 million offshore Kipevu Oil Terminal in the coastal city of Mombasa, the largest of its kind in Africa, is funded by the Kenya Ports Authority and implemented by the China Communications Construction Company. Construction of the 770-meter-long jetty is currently 96 percent complete.
Wang said the project is a reflection of sincere China-Africa friendship that has withstood the test of time, and he foresees the bright future of modernization through joint efforts.
“More than 600 years ago, Chinese navigator Zheng He leading the most powerful fleet visited Mombasa three times. He brought friendship and trust to Africa, rather than colonization or slavery,” he said. “Six hundred years later, following the footprints of Zheng He, Chinese engineers and technicians have arrived in Mombasa and Africa again and built the best roads, best railways and best oil and gas facilities for local people.”
Among major benefits arising from the new facility, which is also a Belt and Road Initiative project, will be a reduction in demurrage and costs of freight docking at the Mombasa port. “Once fully commissioned in a few weeks, we shall save close to $18 million that we pay because of demurrage,’’ Kenyatta said.
When the project is complete in April, the offshore facility will be able to load and offload sea tankers of up to 200,000 deadweight tonnage carrying all categories of petroleum products including crude oil, white oil and liquefied petroleum gas, thus greatly increasing supply of oil to the country.
The terminal is expected to increase the Mombasa port’s capacity of handling transit petroleum products from the current 35,000 to 100,000 metric tons with the capacity to handle four vessels, according to the Kenya Ports Authority.
The new oil terminal facility will have four berths capable of handling six different hydrocarbon import and export products. It also has five subsea pipelines which are buried 26 meters under the seabed to allow dredging of the channel without interference.
Kenyatta commended Kenya’s partnership with China saying that the arrangement had helped deliver key development projects including the offshore jetty, the Standard Gauge Railway and the Nairobi Expressway, among others. He also thanked China for continuing to open up its market to Kenyan exports.
‘We do not need lectures’
“Our partnership with China is not a partnership based on China telling us what to do. It is a partnership of friends,” he said. “They were there ready to work and walk with us hand-in-hand and that indeed is what we call a friend. We do not need lectures about what we need. We need partners to help us achieve what we require.”
China and African countries have jointly built more than 10,000 kilometers of railway, nearly 100,000 km of roads, 1,000 bridges and 100 ports in the continent, in addition to large numbers of hospital and school construction projects, Wang said, adding that China is willing to make new contributions for a better future for Africa.
Kenyatta and Wang also discussed a wide array of bilateral and multilateral subjects of mutual interest, including regional peace and security, as well as the global fight against COVID-19.