Germany Seeks to Revive EU’s Diplomatic, Commercial Presence in Africa

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivers a speech in Hamburg, Germany, on Dec. 4, 2022. Fabian Bimmer/Reuters

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has resuscitated the frantic effort to rebuild the European Union’s diplomatic and commercial presence in Africa amid growing Chinese and Russian influence in one of the world’s fastest-growing regions.

Scholz’s May 4 to May 7 official visit to Ethiopia and Kenya—his second to the continent in less than a year since taking office—saw him making the case for the African Union (AU) to join the G-20 while discussing economic cooperation and global challenges such as climate change.

Smoke billows over buildings in Khartoum, Sudan, as deadly clashes between rival generals' forces in Sudan entered a third week, on May 1, 2023. AFP via Getty Images

However, African public discourse has largely moved away from the war in Ukraine, according to Teniola Tayo, trade policy fellow at the Africa Policy Research Institute.

“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.”

Scholz’s visit wasn’t unconnected to Europe’s “strategic re-engagement” with Africa amid widespread concern about increasing European disinterest on the continent, according to Paul Nantulya, research associate and China specialist at the National Defense University’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

Europe has been engaged in Africa for decades and has always been the continent’s “most valued” and “strategic” partner long before China’s resurgence on the continent in the 2000s under the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) mechanism, Nantulya told The Epoch Times.

“The visit was also driven by a desire to demonstrate Germany’s commitment to lift Africa’s voice in international affairs—in particular, a call for a permanent African seat in the G-20, which will undoubtedly resonate with African countries as it is something they have fought for since the signing of the Ezulwini Consensus in 2005 that spells out Africa’s position on international system reform,” Nantulya said in an email.

Kenyan President William Ruto at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Feb. 19, 2023. Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images

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.”

Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative aims to revive and extend trading routes connecting China with Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe via networks of upgraded or new railways. Photo of Mombasa port in Kenya on Sept. 1, 2018.  Luis Tato/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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.

While in Ethiopia, the German chancellor met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the interim leader of the Tigray Region, Getachew Reda, and discussed progress in ensuring peace after a two-year war that has left at least 600,000 people dead.

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.

Scholz also visited Africa’s biggest geothermal plant, at Lake Naivasha, in the geologically active Great Rift Valley, which is key to Kenya’s plans for producing green hydrogen.

“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.

“It is also something that we can use in Germany, and we will do so. Because there is a lot of potential in this way of producing energy in a climate-friendly way. Geothermal energy is possible in many more places in Germany than people think today.”

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.

That includes funding for Kenya’s largest infrastructure project since becoming independent—a railway line between Nairobi and Mombasa that has since run into refinancing troubles.

During his talks in Ethiopia and Kenya, Scholz discussed the challenge of debt reduction and China’s role in those efforts.

Africa is the largest regional component of China’s controversial $1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative to reset global commerce. However, the project has sparked a backlash from African leaders who say it’s creating an unsustainable debt issue while enslaving the people of Africa.

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.

The EU and the United States have each touted alternatives to the BRI, but both programs rely on private lenders, making their prospects uncertain.

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.

Tibor Nagy, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, hinted to The Epoch Times that Germany is “much more interested” in expanding economic relations with Africa, especially strategic minerals—given its large auto industry.

“That’s where they might conflict with China—which, as we all know, has a lock on most strategic minerals required for [electric vehicle] EV production,” he said.

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.

“The European Union will make an effort to invest in Africa, although Scholz went alone and not in coalition with other EU partners.”

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.”