Africa shouldn’t be an enviornment for competitors between world powers, China’s Overseas Minister Qin Gang mentioned on Wednesday, opening a brand new headquarters for a pan-African well being physique in the beginning of five-country Africa tour.
Qin visited services of the African Union in Addis Ababa, together with the brand new headquarters of the Africa Centres for Illness Management and Prevention. China financed the advanced’s development, because it beforehand did for the headquarters of the AU itself, additionally based mostly within the Ethiopian capital.
China has been Africa’s largest buying and selling associate for over a decade. It competes for affect with the USA – which hosted leaders from 49 African nations final month – in addition to with former colonial powers comparable to Britain and France.
“Africa needs to be a giant stage for the worldwide cooperation, not an enviornment for main nations’ competitors,” Qin mentioned at a information convention with AU Fee chair Moussa Faki.
A trusted aide of President Xi Jinping and former ambassador to the USA, Qin was appointed overseas minister final month. His go to marks the thirty third consecutive 12 months that Africa has been the vacation spot of the Chinese language overseas minister’s first abroad tour of the calendar 12 months.
Qin met on Tuesday with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and different authorities officers, and introduced a partial cancellation of Ethiopia’s debt to China through the go to, although neither facet offered particulars. Ethiopia has borrowed $13.7 billion from China since 2000 and has been in search of to restructure its debt to overseas lenders since 2021.
Qin may even go to Egypt, Angola, Benin and Gabon over the subsequent week. Paul Nantulya, a analysis affiliate on the Africa Middle for Strategic Research, mentioned the selection of nations mirrored China’s range of pursuits in Africa.
China has robust safety ties to Egypt and Angola. Visiting Benin and Gabon reveals ambitions to increase Beijing’s Belt and Roads infrastructure-building drive – lengthy targeted primarily on the Indian Ocean area – into western Africa, he informed Voice of America radio.
