2024 FOCAC Summit to renew friendship, draw cooperation blueprints

By He Yin, People’s Daily
Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 5 in Beijing and deliver a keynote speech.
During the summit, Xi will host a welcoming banquet and relevant bilateral events for the leaders of FOCAC’s African members and representatives of relevant African regional organizations and international organizations invited to the summit.
After a gap of 6 years, leaders from China and Africa will once again gather in Beijing to renew their friendship and discuss cooperation plans. This is bound to inject new impetus into the deepening of political mutual trust and the upgrading of pragmatic cooperation between China and Africa, and to consolidate consensus and strength in building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future.
Xi attaches high importance to China-Africa cooperation. He has been personally involved in the planning of China-Africa relations, providing important guidance for the steady and long-term development of China-Africa ties.
During his visit to Africa in March 2013, Xi put forward the principles of China’s Africa policy – sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, and pursuing the greater good and shared interests, charting the course for China’s cooperation with Africa, and providing the fundamental guidelines.
At the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit in December 2015, Xi announced to implement 10 major cooperation plans with Africa, and both Chinese and African leaders agreed to upgrade the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.
Three years later, Xi chaired the 2018 Beijing summit of the FOCAC and delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony. He announced that to build an even closer China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era, China will, on the basis of the ten cooperation plans already adopted, launch eight major initiatives in close collaboration with African countries in the next three years and beyond.
In November 2021, Xi attended the opening ceremony of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC and delivered a keynote speech. He summarized the everlasting spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, and announced that China will work closely with African countries to implement nine programs.
Under the guidance of head-of-state diplomacy, China-Africa relations have entered a new phase of building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future. The building of a China-Africa community with a shared future continues to be at the forefront of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Friendship and justice, which defines China-Africa relations, require China to facilitate Africa’s development endeavor with its development and ultimately deliver win-win progress and common development through mutually beneficial cooperation.
From the 10 major cooperation plans to the eight major initiatives, and to the nine programs, China and Africa have continuously expanded and deepened their cooperation.
China is the largest developing country investing in Africa. It has carried out multiple trade promotion projects in Africa, such as a fishing port complex in Ghana and an interchange in Nouakchott, Mauritania. It has also built green development projects in Africa, such as a Juncao technology program in Central African Republic, a riverside green development project in Ethiopia, and a photovoltaic farm in Lesotho.
Besides, China has built a foreign service academy in Sierra Leone, the University of Bamako in Mali, and primary schools in Botswana, with an aim to enhance these countries’ capacity building.
So far, Chinese aid and development cooperation projects under the nine programs have all been completed. A vivid picture of China and Africa joining hands to forge a bright future is unfolding.
The pursuit of modernization is a common goal shared by China and African countries. In August 2023, Xi delivered a keynote speech at the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue, during which he announced that China will launch the Initiative on Supporting Africa’s Industrialization, the Plan for China Supporting Africa’s Agricultural Modernization and the Plan for China-Africa Cooperation on Talent Development.
These three initiatives focus on the urgent needs of Africa in achieving industrialization, agricultural modernization, and talent development, demonstrating China’s support for Africa’s development through concrete actions.
African countries generally believe that China is an important partner of Africa in achieving modernization. China and Africa, through their creative explorations for modernization, are giving their answers to the questions of the times, and making joint efforts to advance the great endeavors of win-win cooperation, harmonious coexistence and shared prosperity of civilizations. They will definitely create a better future for the two peoples and set an example for building a community with a shared future for mankind.
China has always followed the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith and the principle of pursuing the greater good and shared interests in its cooperation with Africa, which corresponds to the fundamental interests of African countries and the basic norms of international relations.
China’s aim in developing cooperation with Africa will always be to promote the fundamental interests of the Chinese and African people. Sincerity, equality, mutual benefit, justice, openness and inclusiveness will always be the guiding principles and defining features of China-Africa friendship.
The Global South, including China and Africa, is growing fast and profoundly shaping the course of world history. Strengthening solidarity and cooperation between China and Africa is not only the necessary path for the two sides to achieve common development, but also a powerful driving force for building an equal and orderly multipolar world and promoting universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.