China to support African countries with 1bn yuan to strengthen military, police

Wang Yi, China’s minister of foreign affairs, says his country will give African countries Y1 billion – over $130 million – to strengthen their military and police forces.

Yi spoke with reporters on Thursday through an interpreter after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock villa.

The Chinese minister is in Nigeria to consolidate on the agreements signed by President Xi Jinping and Tinubu when the latter visited the Asian country last year.

The envoy said China would also help Africa in building a standby force.

“China will firmly support Africa in safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests, practicing true multilateralism and not letting power politics and bullyism find their place in Africa,” he said.

“China will also firmly support Africa in achieving security through development. We will work with Africa to jointly carry out the 10 partnership actions and make good use of the 360 billion yuan of funding support announced at the summit.

“Nigeria is an important country in Africa and the chair of ECOWAS, it plays an important role in safeguarding peace and stability in Western Africa and the Sahel region.”

On his part, Yusuf Tuggar, minister of foreign affairs, said Nigeria has shown its capacity over time in addressing challenges to peace and security in the West African region and on the continent.

“We want to work with countries like China in domestic production of military equipment, both kinetic and non kinetic,” Tuggar said.

“This is what we are looking for, so that we don’t have to go out looking to procure and the delays and the you know, so many rules and regulations we need to be able to produce locally.

“Nigeria is a very responsible country working with the constitution, and that’s why, and we’ve never had any expansionist tendencies, which is why others reposed so much confidence in us and in our leadership.”

The minister said anytime Nigeria is left out of agreements on the continent, they become challenging to implement because of its position in Africa.