Xi Jinping in whirlwind of meetings with Global South leaders on Brics sidelines
- Chinese president offers support to Cuban counterpart in ‘defending national sovereignty and opposing external interference’
- He tells Ethiopian prime minister China’s ‘modernisation’ will bring ‘new opportunities’, and also meets leaders of Bangladesh and Senegal
China’s leader has offered support to his Cuban counterpart in “defending national sovereignty and opposing external interference” and a blockade on the country, during talks in Johannesburg.
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During the meeting with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Xi offered support for the isolated nation and the two Communist Party leaders agreed to cooperate.
“China is willing to work with Cuba … to promote the continuous new development of the special friendly relations between the two parties and the two countries,” Xi said, adding that Beijing would support Cuban economic and social development in the face of international hostility.
In a Twitter post, Diaz-Canel said Cuba “notes the will to deepen inter-party ties and the close bonds of friendship and cooperation [with China]”. He also said Cuba appreciated China’s support to end the blockade against the nation and to have it removed from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Cuba was added to the list in 1982 for its “long history of providing advice, safe haven, communications, training and financial support to guerilla groups and individual terrorists”, according to the US State Department. It was taken off the list in 2015, then put back on in 2021 near the end of the Donald Trump presidency.
On Wednesday, Xi also expressed support for Cuba to host a summit of the Group of 77 developing countries and China in September.
Ethiopia has a number of belt and road infrastructure projects and China is the East African nation’s biggest trading partner. Bilateral trade volume reached US$2.66 billion in 2021, according to the Chinese commerce ministry. China’s direct investment in Ethiopia amounted to US$2.81 billion that year.
According to a Twitter post by Abiy’s office, Xi also indicated that China would suspend payments on debt maturing in the 2023-24 period.
Ethiopia’s debt to China stands at an estimated US$13.7 billion, much of it advanced by the Export-Import Bank of China between 2000 and 2021.
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Xi also met Senegalese President Macky Sall, saying China would “share development experience and opportunities” with its “African brothers”.
“Senegal is an important partner of China in Africa. China is willing to strengthen mutual support with Senegal and deepen cooperation in the fields of industry, agriculture, infrastructure construction and human resources development,” Xi said.
Sall said the two countries expressed a willingness to strengthen “friendly, long-standing, strong and mutually beneficial relations”.
In talks with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Xi said China supported the South Asian nation’s economic development, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and opposed external interference.
Bangladesh has long-standing territorial and political disputes with neighbouring India – a member of the Brics bloc of emerging economies along with Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa.
Xi told the Brics summit on Wednesday that the world had entered a “new period of turbulence” and member nations had an important role in stabilising the global economy.
