China promises Africa vaccines rather than funding

The forum on Sino-African Cooperation in Dakar, which concluded Tuesday, November 30, devotes a recalibration of the relationship to health and the environment.

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The ad is spectacular. China will provide Africa with a billion additional doses of vaccine in order to combat the CVIV-19 pandemic, announced Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a videoconferencing intervention from Beijing – before the delegations of the Forum on Sino-African Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Dakar, Senegal, 29 and 30 November. The magnitude of the gesture helps to revive attention on the solicitude of Beijing at the mainland, at a time when the China-Africa dynamics began to mark the step, in particular because of the growing indebtedness of African states. -à-vis the Chinese lessor.

“It is in the difficulty that friendship finds its grandeur test,” welcomed the Senegalese President Macky Sall by praising the “constant support [of China] to our efforts of sanitary response and economic recovery “. The Chinese vaccine offer will take the form of donations (600 million doses) and joint production (400 million doses) with a lifting of intellectual property rights.

At the time of the United States’ interest of the United States for Africa, illustrated by the tour made in mid-November by the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the Dakaroise meeting of the FOCAC – appointment Holding every three years since 2000 – has allowed China to recalibrate its relationship with the African continent. In addition to the ritual slogans on the “shared community community” as part of a “South-South cooperation” at the “win-win” impact, the final communiqué of this Ministerial Conference puts an unprecedented accent on health cooperation (Obligent epidemic), environmental challenges and the use of the private sector.

Financial weighting

As many new areas to get out of a relationship until then dominated by the financing of infrastructure megaprojects at the expense of African states. A “declaration” concerning Sino-African cooperation on the “fight against climate change” was made public Tuesday, like an identical document adopted one month earlier in Brunei by the Association of Asian States Southeast (ASEAN). Africa promises to become a privileged field of application of Beijing’s climate diplomacy. China intends to offer the continent its expertise on “clean energies”, as well as “aeronautical and space technologies”, at the service of the fight against climate change.

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/Media reports.