China is becoming more and more a strategic partner of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The confirmation was made on June 9 with a visit to the Commission of a high-level delegation led by Mr. Lu Shaye, Director for African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China.
During this visit, Mr. Lu Shaye has confirmed the interest of China for infrastructure projects initiated by the ECOWAS Commission. Thus, China will participate in the construction of the Lagos-Dakar regional highway whose studies and preliminary evaluation has already been done by a Chinese technical team.
The Head of the Chinese delegation also confirmed the commitment of his country in the construction of the new headquarters of the ECOWAS Commission.
In addition, China will contribute for 200 000 U.S. dollars to the capacity building activities of the Commission. Mr. Shaye also reiterated the commitment of China in the process of maintaining peace and security in West Africa. In this context China will donate 5 million US dollars to support the ECOWAS Standby Force.
In view of this successful cooperation, the Chinese delegation and the ECOWAS leaders decided to meet again by the end of this year to finalize the projects. To better define the path, both sides agreed to establish a platform for political and strategic dialogue.
Closing the meeting, Dr Toga G. Macintosh, Vice President of the ECOWAS Commission, who chaired the meeting, welcomed the quality and the warm relationship existing between the People’s Republic of China and the ECOWAS Commission.