What Will African Leaders Seek to Gain From Welcoming China’s New Foreign Minister?
A look at the priorities the AU, Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin, and Egypt have for their relationships with China
China’s new foreign minister, Qin Gang, arrived in Ethiopia this Tuesday for his first overseas trip, a week-long visit to the African continent that will also take him across Gabon, Angola, Benin, and Egypt. It’s a 33-year-long tradition for China’s foreign minister to make his first trip of the new year a tour of African countries. Since 2007, China’s leadership has paid 123 visits to the continent (versus 251 by African leaders to China).
Qin, 56, was the envoy to the United States before he succeeded Wang Yi to be China’s foreign minister on December 30, 2022. It is Qin’s first official visit to Africa and he will meet leaders and foreign ministers of the five countries as well as the African Union and the Arab League.
This visit is also special as it comes just one day after China reopened its border to the world after three years of global isolation, a rule change that marked the ending of China’s zero COVID policy. While trade with the African continent has remained robust over the COVID-19 period, nevertheless a key Chinese ambition over this and future overseas missions will no doubt be to reassure partners of China’s commitment to strengthen economic ties, including through stronger cross-border people movement.
During Qin’s visit to Addis Ababa, he will meet with the chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), Moussa Faki, and his team. While Qin’s visit will also include a meeting with the Arab League’s secretary general, based in Egypt, the AUC meeting is relatively more significant. In August 2022 China was among the first countries globally to publicly support the African Union’s bid to be permanently represented by the AU president and AUC in the G20.
Diplomat Brief
During his meeting with Qin, Moussa Faki will have an opportunity to discuss the practicalities of G-20 membership and seek China’s support for African positions at the G-20 and other multilateral forums such as the U.N. and WTO. He can also engage China in the development of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and follow up on several continent-wide commitments made at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), such as regional infrastructure projects and Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).
Qin will also attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the new China-built headquarters of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) – previously a China-U.S. collaboration project. The institution, which has been central to Africa’s admirable COVID-19 response, is the realization of a commitment made by China at the seventh FOCAC meeting back in 2018. No doubt, Africa CDC’s leadership will be seeking to build on this by encouraging China to do more to support the local production of vaccines and medicines in Africa.
On a bilateral level, leaders of the five destination countries will, mostly for the first time in three years, have a direct opportunity to press the Chinese leadership on their key priorities. So what might be on the agenda of each host country’s leaders?
Ethiopia
Gabon
Angola
Benin
Egypt
