China FM in Kenya on three-nation tour of Africa | The Guardian Nigeria News

China’s Overseas Minister Wang Yi will tour Beijing-funded infrastructure initiatives in Kenya and focus on future financial alternatives with President Uhuru Kenyatta throughout a go to Thursday to the East African nation.

Wang arrived within the Indian Ocean port metropolis of Mombasa late Wednesday from Eritrea, a closed-off nation that was the primary cease on his three-nation tour of Africa.

His go to comes on the heels of a visit to Africa by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in November that was partly aimed toward countering China’s rising affect on the continent.

China is Africa’s largest buying and selling companion with direct commerce price over $200 billion (177 billion euros) in 2019, in response to official Chinese language figures.

However it has been usually accused of utilizing its creditor standing to extract diplomatic and industrial concessions.

China is Kenya’s second-largest lender after the World Financial institution and has funded a variety of pricey infrastructure initiatives which have raised issues about Nairobi taking over extra debt than it will probably afford.

Throughout his go to, Wang will tour the Port of Mombasa the place China is setting up a brand new $353 million terminal to permit bigger oil tankers to berth.

He will even meet Kenyatta and a staff of ministers to debate agreements on commerce and funding, well being, safety, local weather change and inexperienced know-how switch.

“The go to provides the 2 international locations a chance to boost bilateral relations by signing agreements,” Kenya’s international ministry stated in a press release.

China has rejected ideas its in depth lending to poorer African international locations has trapped cash-strapped governments in debt dependency.

Beijing funded Kenya’s most costly infrastructure mission since independence, loaning $5 billion for the development of a railway line from Mombasa opened in 2017.

Throughout a go to to Mombasa in January 2020, Wang described the railway as a “benchmark” of China’s Belt and Street Initiative, a trillion-dollar push to enhance commerce hyperlinks throughout the globe by constructing landmark infrastructure.

After Kenya, Wang heads to the Indian Ocean island nation of the Comoros.