Abdallah Abdillahi Miguil (COURTESY)

The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)’s Eighth Ministerial Conference, held in late November 2021 in Senegal, charted the way for the development of China-Africa ties in the following three years and beyond. On this occasion, Abdallah Abdillahi Miguil, Acting Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps and Djibouti’s Ambassador to China, spoke to ChinAfrica about the FOCAC meeting in Dakar and Sino-African ties.

ChinAfrica: FOCAC’s Eighth Ministerial Conference was held in Dakar from November 29 to 30, 2021. What do you think of the outcomes of this meeting? What parts are of special interest to you?

Abdallah Abdillahi Miguil: The results achieved are up to our hopes and expectations. For the first time, the Group of African Ambassadors in China has fully worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce of China in implementing the “eight major initiatives” and taking stock of the results achieved at the Beijing Summit, and also reflecting on the major projects and directions of our cooperation priorities.

China has pledged solidarity with African countries through “nine programs” ranging from health to poverty reduction, agricultural development, trade promotion, investment promotion, digital innovation, green development, capacity building, human and cultural exchange, and peace and security, all of which are part of the Vision 2035 for China-Africa Cooperation. Our partnership with China is lively, cordial, honest, and a wonderful expression of our African goals, in my opinion. As a result, we expect to be able to strengthen this cooperation even further by establishing a permanent mechanism for consultation and follow up on the commitments and results reached at FOCAC’s Eighth Ministerial Conference in Dakar, as well as by reflecting on the Ninth Conference, which will be held in three years.

COVID-19 vaccines for Djibouti are loaded in Beijing on March 13, 2021 (CNSPHOTO)

How important is the Dakar Forum for future Sino-African cooperation? As acting dean of the African Diplomatic Corps and Djibouti’s ambassador to China, how do you plan to promote the implementation of the commitments and initiatives announced during this meeting?

FOCAC is precisely aligned with the aims of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and the work that both parties have begun today reflects this. We expect to continue working together in a spirit of friendship and strengthening our ties so that all of the important work done over the past two decades will enable Africa to realize its aspirations and ambitions in 2063 by reaching a level of development that will allow it to compete on all levels with other continents. FOCAC will be a locomotive for reducing poverty and combating global warming that is rapidly affecting our continent.

It is in this spirit that I myself initiated, on behalf of the Group of African Ambassadors, a symposium to be held on January 18 in Beijing in close collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with participation from the United Nations. This symposium will allow us to reflect technically on the implementation of the outcomes of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of FOCAC, with the objective of keeping this flame alive, but also to reflect on how to involve the UN system in the capacity building of the countries concerned.

Djibouti was one of the first African nations to join the Belt and Road Initiative. What are the current outcomes of this project for the two countries? What are the current and planned projects?

Indeed, in June 2012, Djibouti’s President Ismael Omar Guelleh traveled to China at the request of the Chinese president to attend FOCAC’s Fifth Ministerial Conference, where he inked a strategic cooperation deal with China, making Djibouti one of the first African countries to do so. Since then, various projects in Djibouti have been launched, including port building, the first electric railway in Africa connecting Djibouti and Ethiopia, the largest free trade zone in Africa, and so on.

Currently, we are working more so that, within the framework of FOCAC, the financial and banking center of Djibouti can handle part of the important financial flows between China and Africa because our national currency has been pegged to the U.S. dollar since 1947. In this sense, Djibouti has recently opened a branch of Bank of China. On the other hand, we are also working to attract as many Chinese companies as possible to our largest free trade zone in Africa. Our ambition is to make Djibouti the place where Africans can come to buy Chinese products more easily and without constraints.

The other commitment with all of these ports that we have built and are building is to make Djibouti a hub of international maritime traffic by setting up a transshipment hub and a logistics base for handling a portion of the cargo transiting through the Bab El Mandeb, for Chinese products to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and vice versa.

You’ve been stationed in China since 2011. You’ve been to several cities and watched the country’s progress and changes over the last 10 years. Which ones have impressed you the most? What’s the best way to describe these changes?

China is a fantastic country. The development initiated by the Chinese authorities strongly impressed me in terms of the infrastructure, such as roads, rail, airports and ports; social development such as the provision of housing, education, professional training and health coverage for a population of over 1.4 billion today; the industrial capacity; and research as a whole. China has made a great leap forward on all levels, especially in the last 40 years.

Some Africans believe that Africa’s weakness is the continent’s 54 countries, but what they don’t realize is that this diversity is a source of strength for us, and we are working to unite under the AU umbrella so that we can speak with one voice and compete on an equal footing with other continental powers. China’s progress is a source of inspiration for us. China has a visionary and patriotic leadership that has put in place strong governance to serve its country and its people while making the fight against corruption and poverty a national priority, and has awakened the patriotic and nationalistic spirit of the Chinese people so that everyone can work for the benefit of the country in a nationalistic spirit. Honestly, it is impossible for me to enumerate all the achievements of China.

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