The year 2025 began with an unexpected disruption to the international system, triggered by an unlikely source: the United States. Having long benefited from a rules-based world order, free trade, and the promotion of democracy, the U.S. abruptly withdrew from key international commitments and agreements. The government also reassessed its role in global development by suspending the activities of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), effectively cutting off vital humanitarian and development assistance. This decision sent shockwaves across the international community. The “America First” trade policy, championed by the Trump Administration, is expected to have profound global repercussions,…
Author: Oboshi Agyeno
INTRODUCTION: Since year 2000, the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) started as a platform for China and African countries to interact at different levels in order to find solutions to their development opportunities and challenges. It was through FOCAC that China and Africa made some conservative but daring development strides of the 21st century, which has led to physical advancement and improvement of livelihood of the people. The FOCAC have therefore grown to become a meeting of serious significance for China and Africa in areas of infrastructure development, foreign direct investment (FDI), technology transfer, trade and investment. In 2023 alone,…
INTRODUCTION: China-Africa cooperation has been growing from strength to strength, despite the criticism that comes with some implementation of such relationship. It has been said that China-Africa relations is arguably one of the most enduring partnerships in the literatures of South-South Cooperation. Historically, the relationship between China and African countries have followed a pattern of common and shared interest, friendship and mutual assistance. The reason for this is not far fetched. China and African countries share common philosophical foundation that is influencing the nature of their cooperation.They have collaborated during the liberation and independence struggles against colonialism, have faced common…
By Oboshi Agyeno PhD Research Fellow, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Abuja. INTRODUCTION: In the history of South-South Cooperation, a collection of developing countries situated in what development experts called the Global South, there has never been a time when these countries are altogether inspired by the development stride of a member country like it did with China. The rise of China and the peaceful path to its development into becoming the largest economy in the world by Purchasing Power Parity, is something never seen in living memory. Some countries of the Global South described China’s development as something…
In some few days to come, particularly on the 29th and 30th November 2021, Senegal will be in the league of other African countries like Ethiopia and South Africa to host the all-important Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The FOCAC is a high level tri-annual indaba of China and African countries with diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). All the countries in Africa except for Eswatini that has no diplomatic relations with the PRC, gather every three years to participate in discussions on how to design, consolidate and inject new energy on the way forward for…
INTRODUCTION: On 25 October 2021, the world listened as His Excellency Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and undoubtedly the world most influential politician, read an anniversary speech at a virtual conference attended by United Nations (UN) Secretary General, to commemorate 50 years of the restoration and recognition of the PRC as the only legitimate representative of the Chinese people in the UN. In October 1971, the UN passed Resolution 2758 which removed Taiwan as the member of the UN and accepted the PRC as the sole representation of the Chinese nation in the…
