Chinese Foreign Minister to ink more deals during visit to Kenya
Thursday January 06 2022
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is received by Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo at Moi International Airport, Mombasa, on January 5, 2022. PHOTO | COURTESY
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in the country on Wednesday evening ahead of crucial talks on Thursday that are expected to end in several bilateral agreements.
Mr Wang, who is visiting for the fourth time, touched down in Mombasa shortly after 5pm, from Eritrea where he had begun his Africa trip, and was received by his counterpart, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo.
He is scheduled to take part in a series of activities including a visit to the Kipevu Oil Terminus, a Ksh40 billion ($353 million) facility that was erected by the Chinese recently to aid admittance of larger oil vessels into the Mombasa Port. He is also scheduled to meet President Uhuru Kenyatta and hold discussions with ministers in Kenya.
A statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Nairobi said he is visiting to follow up on the nine-point declaration by African and Chinese ministers of foreign affairs during the meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Senegal last November.
Those points included supply of Chinese vaccines to fight Covid-19, cooperation on the blue economy and climate change, cooperation on green investments, as well as infrastructure support, skills training and technology sharing.
The Ministry said he was coming to “dovetail new measures for practical cooperation” that will include supporting local measures to fight Covid-19 as well as recovery of the economy.
At the FOCAC, Chinese President Xi Jinping had pledged one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to be delivered to African countries in 2022. He also pledged $40 billion additional funding for investments in Africa.
There was no clarity on which agreements Mr Wang would sign in Mombasa but a diplomatic source told The EastAfrican that the deals will touch on health, blue economy and tapping of the deep sea resources as well as an arrangement on value addition for agricultural products.
The agreements will follow a “roundtable” with Ms Omamo and other Cabinet Secretaries including Mutahi Kagwe (Health), Joe Mucheru (ICT), James Macharia (Transport) and Peter Munya (Agriculture).
“The visit gives the two countries an opportunity to enhance bilateral relations by signing Agreements and further cement the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation Partnership between Kenya and China,” said a statement from the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Nairobi.