Xi Jinping signs up Senegal for belt and road plan, pledges closer Africa ties

Senegal has become the first African country on the Atlantic coast to sign up for the “Belt and Road Initiative”, President Xi Jinping’s global push to extend the country’s influence.

Xi arrived in Senegal on Saturday for a two-day visit to sign bilateral deals, the first leg of an Africa tour that will also take him to Rwanda and South Africa, the latter for a summit of BRICS countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Details of the accords signed were not immediately forthcoming, but the Chinese foreign ministry said the country promised to support Senegal in the areas of general development, as well as anti-terror, peacekeeping and “maintaining social stability”.

Xi said Beijing saw Africa as its “natural ally”, a phrase he adopted at a key meeting last month to demonstrate Beijing’s intention of forming an alliance with developing countries at a time when Beijing is locked in a trade war with Washington.

Senegalese President Macky Sall told reporters both leaders held talks on “bilateral cooperation, Sino-African relations and international current affairs”, hailing China as “one of the great economies of the modern era”.

The visit was Xi’s first trip to West Africa as president, but his fourth to Africa, he told a joint press conference with Sall after their third ever meeting.