China making efforts to expand defence ties with Africa through Global Security Initiative

At Thursday’s Politburo meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping, leaders concluded that they would approve a number of pending tech investment deals (Photo: Xinhua)

 

China is promoting its new Global Security Initiative to boost defence ties with Africa through military training, intelligence sharing and counterterrorism amid resistance faced by Western power and gradual withdrawal of some powers from the continent.

In a letter to the recent second China-Africa Peace and Security Forum^[3], Chinese President Xi Jinping called on both to institute the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and safeguard international fairness and justice. “Realising lasting peace and universal security is the common aspiration of the Chinese and African people,” he wrote.

“China is ready to work with African friends in upholding the concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security,” Xi added.

Senior defence officials from 48 African nations participated in the forum. Wei Fenghe, China’s defence minister, delivered the keynote address. China and Africa, Wei said, should “strengthen equipment and technological cooperation, deepen joint maritime training exercises [and] expand exchanges in professional fields [so as] to promote the China-Africa peace and security cooperation”.

Announced in April, the GSI is means to fulfil China’s ambition to be a leader in global governance and security.

“Beijing is deepening its security cooperation with Africa, where it has contributed thousands of troops to the United Nations^[4] peacekeeping missions; has been training more military officials; and seeks further involvement in the peace process in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel regions. Further, a growing number of African countries are buying military arms and equipment from China,” according to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

China under BRI has financed infrastructure projects across Africa, including ports, highways, power dams, railways and roads. That has necessitated the expansion of Chinese military cooperation to protect its citizens and investments. In 2017, Beijing^[5] established its first overseas military base in Djibouti.

China contributed to the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo and earlier in Sudan and Mali.

“Beijing’s cooperation in counter-piracy operations has included not just its own naval forces’ contributions in the Gulf of Aden but in providing resources, including donating patrol boats to the Ghanaian military. China has also provided financial support to regional institutions’ security efforts, such as its contributions to the G5 Sahel Joint Force and the Economic Community of West African States. Invoking the GSI, Beijing said it would continue to deliver military assistance to the African Union,” SCMP report noted.

Mohammed Soliman, a scholar at the Middle East Institute^[6] in Washington, told SCMP that China was positioning the GSI as a solution to the continent’s security challenges – “a non-Western alternative and mechanism by the global south for the global south”.

Soliman said Beijing would use the initiative to “build China’s status as a great power that is able to project influence beyond its sphere of influence in Asia”.

“Beijing has emerged as a strategic partner for many Middle Eastern and African nations in the last 10 to 15 years, in part by China’s transactional military and security cooperation. Transactional bilateral relations are the model of choice for many regional powers,” Soliman said.

^[1][2]

References

1. ^{^} Global Security Initiative (www.bing.com)
2. ^{^} Africa (www.bing.com)
3. ^{^} Security Forum (www.bing.com)
4. ^{^} United Nations (www.bing.com)
5. ^{^} Beijing (www.bing.com)
6. ^{^} Middle East Institute (www.bing.com)