BEIJING, June 26th (ABP) – ” We are ready to work with the Horn of Africa countries, to take the opportunity offered by the upcoming FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Cooperation) Summit in Beijing, to discuss new measures of cooperation and inject stronger dynamics into the Outlook on Peace and Development in the Horn of Africa and turn the region into a Horn of peace, development and prosperity, building a China-Africa community with shared future of higher level “, Xue Bing, Special Envoy for Horn of Africa of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) stressed on Tuesday, Jume 25, 2024 during a news conference he held in Beijing.
This press conference took place a day after the Second Horn of Africa Peace Conference Senior Officials Meeting was held in Beijing. Senior officials from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda and heads of missions to China attended the meeting to discuss major tasks of peace and development in the region. The Vice-Minister of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (PRC), Chen Xiaodong, attended the meeting and delivered the opening remarks.
Given that the Horn of Africa countries enjoy traditional friendship with China, they are hopeful that the latter can play a more important role to help them deal with multiple security challenges that they face. Thus, China put forward the Outlook on Peace and Development in 2022, an initiative aimed at providing new project for the region’s efforts to explore a systematic path to peace and development and new platforms for solving regional disputes through peaceful negotiation, and supporting the region’s efforts for enhanced solidarity and independence, lasting peace and shared prosperity.
In the past two years, Mr. Xue said, China and Horn of Africa countries worked closely together to translate the vision into reality, while focusing on three main pillars such as security, development and governance. They injected positive energy into the peace and development process of the region, he added.
Regarding security issues, the Special Envoy for Horn of Africa of Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that China advocates enhancing intraregion dialogues to promote peace and stability. He assured that after taking office so far, he has visited the region for eight times covering all countries of the region, and had candid and in-depth exchanges with different sides on promoting peace in the region.
As far as development is concerned, he pointed out that in order to help the region realize sustainable development, China provided both emergency aid and lasting solutions. In the past two years, China provided multiple batches of emergency food aid and vaccines of Covid-19, cholera and malaria. China helped the region’s infrastructure construction, promoting intraregional connectivity.
By way of illustration, the railways from Nairobi to Mombassa, from Ethiopia to Djibouti have become arteries of prosperity and development. ” We supported accelerating exploitation of red sea coast and east Africa coast and constructing an economic belt “, Mr. Xue stressed, adding that to help increasing the region’s independent development capacity, China provided technical assistance of all kinds including professional education, bamboo industry and mushroom grass technology, and 10,000 training opportunities were provided in the two years’ time.
China incessantly increases its direct investment in the region, with an increase of 600 million USD in 2023, and bilateral trade has surpassed 20 billion USD, he disclosed, reiterating China’s willingness to be a strong partner and fellow pioneer of the Horn of Africa and set together an example to follow for China-Africa and South-South cooperation.
From governance standpoint, Mr. Xue said that China always considers that African people know Africa the best and have more say on African questions. China always supports African solutions for African problems, firmly opposes external interference in domestic politics of the region, supports the region’s efforts to explore the path of development adapted to their national realities. ” We are both committed to defending international equity and justice, pushing for reform of international governance system and defending our shared legitimate interests of development on international multilateral forums “, he said.
Mr. Xue expressed his hope that China and Africa should continue to be partners and fellow pioneers on the path to preserving peace, common development, and equity and justice. ” We stand ready to work with the countries of the region in the light of the Global Security Initiative to enhance dialogues and mutual trust, deepen mutual understanding through policy communication, solve adequately the disputes in the region and build together a broader vision of peace and security “, he promised.
” We call for an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization and participate actively in global governance reform and construction. We are ready to work with Horn of Africa countries to defend cooperation within Global South, and defend a more equitable and fair international order “, Mr. Xue pointed out.
The Special Envoy for Horn of Africa of Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the press that during the meeting, the different sides spoke highly of China’s initiatives and commended China’s contribution to realizing them. He pointed out that the Parties had deep and candid discussions and reached important consensus while focusing on peace, security, cooperation, development, and governance.
The Parties reaffirmed that they should continue to pursue peaceful settlement of differences and disputes in the region through dialogue and consultation in an effort to ease the regional security situation. To this end, they welcomed China to join the mediation efforts on hotspot issues in the region and to play an active and constructive role in promoting peace and stability in the Horn of Africa, through Special Envoy diplomacy and other useful initiatives and channels on the basis of respecting the will of the concerned countries in the region.
The Parties commended the Global Security Initiative (GSI) put forward by President Xi Jinping and emphasized their willingness to closely work with China, to be guided by the implementation of the Initiative, and to uphold the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security.
Particularly, the Parties underscored the importance of further enhancing security cooperation in areas such as addressing root causes of conflict, closer collaboration on preventive diplomacy and mediation efforts, promoting peaceful coexistence and resolution of conflicts, coordinated approach in combating violent extremism and terrorism, to jointly maintain stability of the region. The countries of the region appreciated China’s increasing role for the promoting advancement of peace and stability beyond the Horn of Africa to the African continent through multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations and the African Union.
The Parties did not fail to commend the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) put forward by President Xi Jinping, and expressed their readiness to combine collective efforts to ensure full implementation of these initiatives. They appreciated China’s support for the African Union’s membership in the G20 and its efforts for BRICS’s enlargement.
Furthermore, the Parties appealed to accelerate the reform of international multilateral financial institutions, increase representation and voice of developing countries, and call on relevant institutions to demonstrate timeliness and flexibility in providing development financing to support independent sustainable development of the Horn of Africa countries. The Parties will continue to uphold the One-China principle.
Mr. Xue underscored that China is willing to continue its support for regional countries in dealing with development challenges like poverty reduction, food security and public health according to the needs of regional countries. ” For any cause, as long as it benefits Africa’s peace and development, China will support without hesitation “, he made a promise.
Shedding light on questions put to him by journalists from Africa, the Special Envoy for Horn of Africa of Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that China strongly wishes that all conflicts in the Horn of Africa come to the end, so that the region can embark on development projects peacefully. Since the founding of the PRC, he said, China’s foreign policy has been obedient of the principle of ” No interference in internal affairs of any country “, hence it always expresses its readiness to fully play its role but based on the willingness of the concerned parties.
Note that the meeting attendees decided that the third meeting will be held next year in the Horn of Africa countries.