China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang began the first leg of his Jan. 10-16 five-nation tour of Africa on Jan. 10, where he paid a courtesy call on Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and held talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen Hassen. Foreign Minister Qin also shared the progress made under the Outlook on Peace and Development in the Horn of Africa in Ethiopia. On Jan. 11, he met with African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa and inaugurated the newly completed Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), built by the China Civil Engineering Construction Co. The Africa CDC headquarters is a flagship project of China-Africa cooperation announced by President Xi Jinping at the FOCAC Beijing Summit in 2018. Like the AU Conference Center, the CDC headquarters is a landmark of China-Africa cooperation.
From Ethiopia, Qin went on to Gabon, where he met with President Ali Bongo Ondimba, and will next visit Angola, Benin, and Egypt.
It is tradition, now 33 consecutive years, that the Chinese Foreign Minister makes Africa the destination of their first overseas trip each year. In Addis Ababa, Qin stressed that Africa should be a major stage for international cooperation, not an arena for great-power rivalry, Xinhua reported. Specifically, he said that U.S.-China relations “should not be a competitive relationship or a zero-sum game.” Rather, both nations should respect each other, “live in peace and cooperate for win-win results and refrain from undermining the interests of any third party.” No power should demand that African nations “choose sides,” he insisted.
