President Muhammadu Buhari will join Chinese and other African leaders to address the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in China, the country’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Zhou Pingjian has said.
The summit, billed to hold in September 2018 in Chinese capital, is themed “China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation.” FOCAC is a key platform for the collective dialogue and cooperation between China and African countries. Since the forum was launched in Beijing in 2000, China’s trade with Africa has overtaken that of the traditional partners, Europe and the United States.
The last summit was held in December 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the Chinese President Xi Jinping announced $60 billion funding support for infrastructural development in Africa.
Dr. Pingjian said the implementation work of the FOCAC Johannesburg summit has been going smoothly with prominent achievements in Nigeria. “President Xi Jinping will open the summit, while President Muhammadu Buhari and other African leaders will address the gathering,” the envoy told journalists on Friday at a press briefing in Abuja.
He also disclosed that officials from 52 African countries, including the African Union Commission, are expected to attend the Beijing summit.
Dr. Pingjian said the FOCAC summit would adopt a new Action Plan, adding that the new Chinese commitments to Africa would be embedded in the new document. The envoy, meanwhile, reiterated his country’s commitment to stepping up its cooperation with Nigeria in agriculture, manufacturing, industrial capacity and investment, infrastructure, energy, and other areas.
According to him, the FOCAC Beijing summit would bring about new opportunities to grow China-Nigeria strategic partnership. “The China-Nigeria relations have since entered a new stage of rapid development. It is our firm belief that President Buhari’s attendance at the upcoming FOCAC Beijing Summit will make important contribution to China-Africa cooperation and bring about new opportunities to grow China-Nigeria strategic partnership,” he added.
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