“There have been other crises within Africa, such as the ongoing conflict in Sudan that is taking up more attention,” Teniola told The Epoch Times via a messaging app.
“There are also probably more effective ways of correcting some of the disinformation that exists within African public spaces, as the leaders [that] Scholz engaged with are more likely to know the facts of the situation and are not as vulnerable to the prevailing rhetoric.”
A G-20 seat would give one of the fastest-growing regions of the world a bigger voice on key issues, such as climate change.
The choices of Ethiopia, as the seat of the AU, and Kenya, as one of the AU’s most influential members, were certainly informed by Germany’s push for a more influential African position in international affairs, Nantulya said.
“African countries tend to have objections to the dominance of Western European powers and the United States in international relations and therefore sometimes support Russia and China, whom they believe are putting up a challenge—irrespective of what that challenge looks like,” he said.
At the same time, African countries largely view post-Soviet Russia as “the successor” of the Soviet Union, whose record in supporting the fight for African independence and the battle against white minority rule in Southern Africa and apartheid in South Africa and Namibia is well-established.
“These memories are firmly etched in the political mindsets and attitudes of modern-day Africans and should not be dismissed,” Nantulya said. “This explains in part African states’ voting behavior at the U.N. when it comes to votes involving Russia and its re-invasion of Ukraine.”
The only way out is for African countries, Europe, and the United States to have “an open and frank dialogue about their historical and contemporary grievances and to validate those grievances,” according to the researcher.
He also met with AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat and discussed the latest developments in Sudan, economic cooperation, and global challenges.
While in Kenya, Scholz discussed trade relations and how to end the ongoing conflict in Sudan, as well as Kenya’s renewable-energy success story with President William Ruto.
“We don’t have any volcanic regions like this in Germany, but we have many areas and landscapes that have potential for geothermal energy,” he said.
Better Partner Than China
The government in Berlin is convinced that Europe can make a better partnership with Africa than China, even as Kenya and Ethiopia have been among the recipients of China’s largest loans to the continent.During his talks in Ethiopia and Kenya, Scholz discussed the challenge of debt reduction and China’s role in those efforts.
China’s role as the primary lender for many developing nations has increasingly become part of the wider strategic competition with the United States for global influence.
Germany and other European countries view the regime in Beijing increasingly as a strategic competitor and are struggling to reduce their economic dependencies on China, a lesson learned from their overreliance on Russian energy.
Too Dependent
Kevin Jessip, president of Global Strategic Alliance, concurred and noted that with tensions at a fever pitch as the Indo-Pacific region heats up over cross-Taiwan Strait tensions—and geopolitically due to Russia’s war with Ukraine—Germany now finds itself “very dependent” upon China with its economic cooperation regarding various issues, such as food security and climate change.“Germany is not the only country that finds itself too dependent on China,” Jessip told The Epoch Times in an email.
“Chancellor Scholz’s trip was controversial.
“Despite objections from many of his cabinet and ruling coalition, he pushed through a controversial deal to allow the Chinese state-owned shipping company Cosco to purchase nearly 25 percent of Hamburg’s port terminals, which continues to expand the supply chain of global ports globally controlled by the Chinese.”
Jessip bemoaned Africa for its inability, in many cases, to show “accountability” and “transparency” with certain European and U.S. funds allocated to the needs of the intended peoples.
“In the recent Equity for Africa Conferences hosted by Liberty University in the United States—attended by presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, ministers of finance, businesses, and parliamentarians alike—there is now a cry for China to be replaced as the BRI has only caused a new and unsustainable debt load which is being leveraged for the nations mineral rights and other national assets,” he said.
Use Both East and West
Teniola and Nantulya agree that Africa could make significant gains if its leaders can navigate the competition of outside powers wisely, with the determination to maximize the benefit for their own countries.“African countries should not choose one partner at the expense of another, but should strategically navigate the various interests while leveraging for their own needs,” Teniola told The Epoch Times.
“There are things that the Chinese do well, that Western countries will struggle with.
“For example, the Chinese generally have a higher deployment speed when it comes to executing projects. On the other hand, Western partners bring on board stronger accountability measures and more development financing that cuts across social sectors in African countries.
“Western partners are also critical to Africa’s green transition, both as a source of expertise and for climate financing.”
Before China came in with its BRI, infrastructure financing was basically a “non-starter,” yet the demand for it was “very high,” Nantulya said.
China’s BRI thus “forced” Europe, Japan, and the United States to come through with their own infrastructure financing packages, he said.
“This is a good thing for Africa because it increases the continent’s options, raises its profile, and plugs more financing to close its huge infrastructure gap of $100 billion per year,” Nantulya said.
“No single partner can close that gap, so there is a lot of room for African countries and private sectors to negotiate arrangements across the different mechanisms that are now in place.”
He said the United States, Europe, and Japan have also been “rethinking” their education, professionalization, and human resource development programs in Africa in light of China’s huge packages since the 2000s.
“This, too, is a good thing for Africa,” Nantulya said. “It gives the continent options, increases competition, and delivers more for Africa—as long as African countries negotiate in the public interest.”