The Courier

Seni Awa Camara, Untitled, 1988. Terracotta, 81 x 27.3 x 22.5 cm.

Photo: Claude Postel - Courtesy of C.A.A.C. - The Pigozzi Collection, Geneva.

That Europe finds it is better to be friends than foes has been underscored by a host of recent initiatives that began with a key event the European Commission held in June, where representatives from Europe, Africa and China came together under the same roof for the first time. This gathering was to set the stage for discussions during the EU-China Summit in Beijing, 27 November and the EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon, December 7–9.

Brussels was the venue for a 28 June Commission-sponsored get-together where more than 180 experts were asked to consider the key question: were the EU, Africa and China able to cooperate as partners? To answer this, political, industrial, scientific and diplomatic experts from Africa, Europe and Asia were tasked with exploring opportunities for Sino-European cooperation against a backdrop of the African continent.

‘Triangular’ cooperation may have been the watchword, but the aim, in the final analysis, was to avert a clash between Africa’s leading trading partner and investor and a nation that has become the continent’s third largest trading partner in the period of just three years. As Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development, stated in his opening speech to the conference, “we are competitors, but we are also partners and Africa should benefit rather than suffer from our presence”.

Thriving trade

That said, the main concern of the Europeans is to preserve the privileged relationship it has enjoyed with Africa for decades, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

“China’s inroads to Africa have been so successful that we are compelled to start asking ourselves questions and thinking about the best ways of reacting”, a European expert acknowledged at the conference. And indeed the figures speak for themselves: the average rate of economic growth in Africa in recent years is 6%, with 2% of this directly attributable to the “China effect”. That is thanks to the country’s investment programme and its 900 or so companies already located in Africa.

Additionally, the soaring prices for raw materials and farm and fishery produce can be directly traced to Chinese demand, as it has now become the world’s leading buyer of these types of products. In fact, Beijing is now ranked as Africa’s third largest trading partner. These trade activities were worth US$55 billion in 2006 versus US$40 billion 12 months earlier, and they are expected to double again within five years. At the same time the share enjoyed by Europe, currently the leading partner, is decreasing.

However, currently relations between China and the EU are going from strength to strength. Bilateral trade has increased 40-fold in the wake of the reforms in China since 1978, and were worth over €174 billion in 2004. Indeed, China is now the EU’s second most important trading partner – behind the United States – and the EU became Beijing’s top partner in 2004. On the institutional front, the EU and China have close relations overseen by an annual meeting of government leaders. The next summit is scheduled for November in Beijing.

And while the EU, considering its long association with Africa, still struggles to put together meetings with its African partners – the first EU-Africa Summit was in 2000, and a second is to take place at the end of this year – Chinese leaders have been pulling out all the stops. By 2000 they had already set up the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which was transformed into a summit conference in 2006 when Hu Jintao, President of the People’s Republic of China, welcomed 48 African heads of state to Beijing.

Now plans for a trilateral summit must be developed.

The African experience

Chinese representatives at the Brussels meeting, including ambassador Liu Guijin, the Chinese Special Representative for African Affairs, stressed the “solid friendship between their countries and their African brothers and sisters”, while making a critical passing reference to Europe’s colonial past.

From the African side reaction was more mixed, with officials underscoring the genuine opportunities opened up by China’s commitment while also warning of the equally genuine and proven risks of dumping and the plundering of natural resources. At the same time, the European Commission has taken care to refrain from criticism of its own, particularly in the case of China’s “no-ties” aid policy, showing that Europe has clearly opted for cooperation rather than confrontation.

One specialist stressed the importance of reviewing how the Chinese aid system works in practice. While it is more flexible than the European model and apparently more adaptable, the Chinese are sometimes caught by surprise in spite of their massive commitment and turn to the EU for explanations. It is with this “African experience” that Europe plans to discuss and negotiate with China in its attempt to win Beijing over to a workable triangular partnership.

Practical cooperation

The European Commission has plans to go much further than that. During his closing speech at the conference, Bernard Petit, the Commission’s Deputy Director-General for Development, elaborated a list of areas where China and the EU could cooperate in the future: reforming the security sector in Democratic Republic of Congo; the Kimberley Process and FLEGT – two programmes aimed at clamping down on the illegal trade in diamonds and timber – and finally the reform of the continent’s infrastructure. According to the European Commission, infrastructure in the EU has a huge wealth of experience that China could enhance with its own national experiences. As part of this, the EC invited Chinese authorities to the launch of the EU-Africa partnership on infrastructures, a process that kicked off 24–25 October in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. China, however, was not the only guest. Two Chinese banks, the China Development Bank and the Exim Bank participated as observers.