The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held in Beijing from September 4 to 6. Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the summit and delivered a keynote address. The summit was attended by the leaders of all 53 African countries that have established diplomatic relations with China and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, as well as the United Nations Secretary-General and representatives from more than 30 international and African regional organizations. During the summit, the two sides reached a clear political consensus of enhancing all-round cooperation and unanimously adopted two significant outcome documents, namely the Beijing Declaration and the Action Plan, making the summit very fruitful. I would like to give a summary of the summit’s key highlights through numbers.

30 African Countries: Elevating Their Relations with China

During the summit, President Xi Jinping held bilateral meetings with all heads of state and heads of government who attended the summit respectively to hold in-depth talks about major strategic issues. Meanwhile, China established or elevated its strategic partnerships with a total of 30 countries, whereby China has entered into strategic partnerships with all African countries having diplomatic ties with China. Furthermore, the overall characterization of the China-Africa relations has been elevated to an all-weather community with a shared future for the new era. China and Africa will play a greater role in improving the well-being of the Chinese and African peoples and safeguarding world peace and stability.

6-point Proposition: Jointly Advancing China-Africa Modernization

President Xi Jinping put a six-point proposition on China-Africa joint efforts to advance modernization and pointed out that China and Africa should advance modernization that is just and equitable, that is open and win-win, that puts the people first, that features diversity and inclusiveness, that is eco-friendly and that is underpinned by peace and security. Such proposition is widely accepted by African leaders and will have a significant and far-reaching impact on spearheading faster modernization of the Global South and advancing global modernization.

3-year Blueprint: Boosting China-Africa Cooperation

The Beijing Declaration and Action Plan adopted by the two sides have drawn a blueprint for strengthening China-Africa cooperation in the next three years. President Xi Jinping announced ten partnership actions that China would take with Africa to advance modernization in the next three years, covering the areas of mutual learning among civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, health, agriculture and livelihoods, people-to-people exchanges, green development, and common security. China will take an array of practical measures, including giving the least developed countries in Africa zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines and creating at least one million jobs for Africa, with a view to collaboratively delivering more fruits of development to the African people.

RMB 360bn: Providing Financial Support

President Xi Jinping also announced that the Chinese government will provide RMB360 billion yuan of financial support through the next three years. This breaks down into RMB210 billion yuan of credit line, RMB80 billion yuan of assistance in various forms, and at least RMB70 billion yuan of investment in Africa by Chinese companies. It will provide strong support for enhancing China-Africa results-oriented cooperation in all areas.

In its long-term cooperation with Africa, China has always been committed to the principles of not interfering in Africa's internal affairs and sincerely providing assistance to Africa without attaching any political conditions. China does not engage in geopolitical games and opposes taking advantage of Africa for selfish interests. This is in stark contrast to the practices of some Western countries. Western politicians and media, whenever they are talking about China-Africa cooperation, invariably hype up the so-called “debt trap”. As a matter of fact, recent statistics published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) show that China-Africa bilateral debt only represented 11 percent of Africa’s total external debt. China has never been the primary creditor of African debt. African politicians also stressed that China’s investment in Africa brings about mutual benefits and win-win results. The so-called “debt trap” rhetoric reveals the sour grapes attitude of some countries. Countries smearing and slandering China-Africa cooperation are exactly those that caused untold misery in the African history and failed to truly help Africa with its development.

China-Africa cooperation has set a successful example for international cooperation in today’s world. It also gives great inspiration for deepening China-Kuwait and China-Arab friendship and cooperation. As China-Kuwait strategic partnership is presented with a golden opportunity for further growth, China stands ready to work with the Kuwaiti side to earnestly implement the important consensus between the two heads of state and make sustained progress in key cooperative projects in a way to contribute to Kuwait’s diversified economic development and achieve win-win results and common development of both nations.