Reaffirming the Africa commitment
FM’s five-nation tour highlights the importance China attaches to the continent
Economic recovery, co-building the Belt and Road Initiative and further joint efforts in fighting COVID-19 will be high on the China-Africa agenda this year, officials and experts said, as State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi embarked on his first trip abroad in the New Year to the continent.
From Jan 4 to 9, Wang crisscrossed the continent with official visits to Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana, Tanzania and Seychelles.
In Kinshasa, on Jan 6, Wang and his DRC counterpart Marie Tumba Nzeza signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation on the BRI after earlier talks.
Wang said the BRI is an important international cooperation initiative and is committed to promoting economic complementarity among countries, synergizing development strategies, forming joint development efforts, and realizing common development and prosperity.
At present, China has signed BRI cooperation documents with 44 African countries, Wang said, adding that China welcomes the DRC as its 45th partner in Africa in BRI cooperation.
Wang said the signing of the MoU by the two sides will send a positive signal to the world that China and DRC are committed to common development and prosperity.
China is the world’s biggest developing country and Africa is home to the largest number of developing countries, and both sides “have the responsibility of advancing the interests of developing countries”, Wang told Chinese media in a group interview published on Jan 2.
“China and Africa have always
shared weal and woe. This friendship emerged still stronger from the test of COVID-19 in 2020,” he added.
Starting from 1991, Chinese foreign ministers have chosen Africa as their first overseas destination every year.
By following this tradition, the latest trip “manifests the great importance China attaches to developing ties” with the continent, and it shows
Beijing’s sincerity and determination to deepen friendly relations with African countries in the post-pandemic era, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said earlier.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China and Africa have joined hands to combat the contagion.
To tackle the pandemic, the two sides convened the Extraordinary
China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19 in June, which was attended by President Xi Jinping and 14 African leaders.
During Wang Yi’s latest five-nation tour, his agenda included conducting in-depth communication, further putting into practice the consensus reached by Xi and African leaders, supporting the countries’ fight against the virus and helping bring about economic recovery, the ministry spokesman said.
Also, advances will be made for building the BRI and constructing the China-Africa community with a shared future, the spokesman added.
He Wenping, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of West-Asian and African Studies, said the China-Africa friendship still prevails on both sides as their friendly ties enjoy a long history, and African countries have been consistent with China on many major international issues and offer staunch support for China’s core interests.
Last year, China and Africa celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a flagship dialogue venue for promoting collaboration between the two sides.
Senegal, in the west of the African continent, will host the FOCAC meeting this year.
“In this context, China will work with Africa on the three priority areas of vaccine cooperation, economic recovery and transformative development to build new consensus on solidarity, break new ground for cooperation and deliver new benefits to the people,” Wang Yi said.
China and Africa “will make new progress in building the China-Africa community with a shared future”, he added.
The foreign minister said FOCAC has become a new model of friendship, cooperation and common development among developing countries. In the past 20 years, with China’s help, over 6,000 kilometers of railways, 6,000 km of roadways, nearly 20 ports and over 80 large power plants have been built in Africa. Two-way trade has grown 20-fold and China’s direct investment in Africa surged 100-fold.