qin gang, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, went to five countries on the continent to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties.
by Frédéric Lemaître (Beijing, correspondent)
Like all its predecessors since 1991, Qin Gang, the new Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister, began the year with a tour in Africa. For a week, from January 9 to 16, the one who was until the end of December Ambassador of China to the United States visited five African countries: Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin and Egypt. If no spectacular announcement has been made during this trip, it has helped strengthen the links, both economic and diplomatic, between China and Africa.
In Ethiopia, Qin Gang inaugurated the new headquarters of the African Union control center (CDC Africa), funded and built by China, as Beijing was committed to the China-Africa summit in 2018. China had already built the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa and is preparing to build in Nigeria that of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Qin Gang said that Beijing wants the AU to participate in the G20, “a symbolic but clever gesture”, according to researcher Jean-Pierre Cabestan, based in Hongkong. Obtaining a seat in the G20 is a strong demand from Africans.
On the other hand, the minister remained very cautious about the situation in Ethiopia after the fragile peace agreement concluded in November between the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the insurgents of the Liberation Front of the Tiger People (TPLF). China had appointed a special envoy to the horn of Africa, but it does not seem to have played role in the negotiations. More than 400 Chinese companies are present in the country and Qin Gang recalled that Beijing wanted Ethiopia “to take effective measures” to ensure the safety of its nationals.
debt trap
While the Ethiopian debt with regard to China would rise to more than $ 13 billion (around 12 billion euros), according to a study of the Global Development Policy Center of the University of Boston, and that Ethiopia announced in 2021 wanting to renegotiate its external debt, the Emissaire de Beijing remained elusive on the subject. During a meeting with Moussa Faki Mahamat, president of the AU committee, Qin Gang denied that there is any debt trap. “The problem of debt of Africa is essentially a question of development,” he said.
Sign of the competition by the great powers in the Horn of Africa, Qin Gang had barely left Addis Ababa than the French and German foreign ministers, Catherine Colonna and Annalena Baerbock, carried out a Official visit on January 12 and 13.
You have 45.03% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.