Former Zimbabwean Deputy Prime Minister, Professor Arthur Mutambara, has urged African nations to take a proactive role in shaping their engagement with China ahead of the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit, which will be held in Beijing from September 4-6.
The summit, themed “Joining Hands to Advance Modernisation and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future,” is a key diplomatic event that continues the strong ties established during previous FOCAC summits in 2006, 2015, and 2018.
During a recent news briefing, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong outlined the summit’s agenda, which includes a welcome banquet, an opening ceremony, and four high-level meetings focusing on state governance, industrialization and agricultural modernization, peace and security, and high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.
The event will also feature the eighth China-Africa Entrepreneurs’ Conference and other related activities.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will officially open the summit and deliver a keynote address, where he is expected to introduce new initiatives and measures to strengthen cooperation between China and Africa.
Mutambara emphasized the importance of Africa leveraging its vast mineral wealth by engaging with China as a regional bloc or as a unified continent, rather than as individual nations. He believes that this approach will help Africa secure more favourable outcomes from its resources within a genuinely reciprocal partnership.
“In the so-called win-win framework between China and Africa, Africans must define what constitutes a WIN for Africa,” Mutambara stated.
The summit is expected to be a significant platform for advancing China-Africa relations and exploring new avenues for collaboration.