China and Equatorial Guinea Strengthen Relations in Beijing
Chinese President met with his Equatorial Guinea counterpart Teodoro Obiang today, agreeing to upgrade relations between the two countries to a "comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation".
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Mundo China
During the meeting with Obiang, who has already visited China ten times, Xi Jinping said that the "mutual support" between the two nations illustrates the friendship between China and the African countries, according to the local press, quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE.
Since 1970, the year in which diplomatic relations were established between the two countries, China has maintained cooperation agreements with Equatorial Guinea in sectors such as health, education, energy, construction, telecommunications and navigation.
China's interest in Equatorial Guinea progressed in parallel with the discovery of significant hydrocarbon deposits (oil and natural gas) in the country, at the end of the 1990s.
The Chinese state press underlined this week that the visit by Obiang, in power since 1979, aims to "expand bilateral collaboration" to "diversify the African country's economy and improve its industrial capacity".
According to the Global Times newspaper, the bilateral ties are "a model of south-south cooperation" of two countries that "treat each other as equals".
"China has supported Equatorial Guinea in many areas, both economic and technical. It can be said that part of Equatorial Guinea's transformation is due precisely to the economic support of the Chinese government", stated Obiang in a recent interview with the state news agency Xinhua.
Obiang said that Equatorial Guinea expects China to "increase support for training talent to help the country establish a solid foundation for independent development".
In addition, Chinese experts told the Global Times newspaper that "China will work to promote industrialisation in Equatorial Guinea", since the country rich in natural resources "urgently needs to diversify its economic development and its industrialisation".
China has shown a growing interest in Africa, becoming the continent's largest trading partner.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, United States), between 2000 and 2019, Chinese entities signed more than 1,100 loan commitments in the amount of approximately 153 billion dollars (approximately 140 billion euros) with African governments or state-owned companies in African countries.
Beijing also opened its first military base abroad in a country in the Horn of Africa, Djibouti, in 2017.
Read also: Money laundering scheme dismantled in Equatorial Guinea (Portuguese version)
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