Wang Yi photo:fmprc

Maintaining a 35-year tradition that the Chinese foreign minister visits Africa on the first overseas trip at the start of a year,mk Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi is visiting Africa on a four-country trip to Namibia, the Republic of the Congo, Chad and Nigeria. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning announced the week-long visit from January 5 to 11 on Friday. Namibia, the Republic of the Congo, Chad and Nigeria are all China's friendly cooperation partners. The purpose of Foreign Minister Wang Yi's upcoming visit is to implement the outcomes of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit and deepen practical cooperation across the board for sustained and substantive growth of China-Africa relations, Mao said. 

Over the past 35 years, despite the ever-changing international situation, China-Africa relations have withstood various tests and the friendship has been strong and enduring, Song Wei, a professor from the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Sunday. "Maintaining the tradition is a good reflection of China's continuous commitment to this friendship."  

The new year visit comes against the backdrop that during 2024, bilateral relations between China and all African countries having diplomatic ties with China were elevated to the level of strategic relations, and that the overall characterization of China-Africa relations was elevated to an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era. 

This year will see the start of implementing the FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (2025-2027), and so the visit is of unique significance in regard to thorough planning and effective pushing forward the action plan, He Wenping, a director with the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday. 

According to the plan, China and Africa will in the next three years implement 10 partnership initiatives for joining hands to advance modernization for China and Africa. They cover the areas of mutual learning between civilizations, trade prosperity, industrial chain cooperation, connectivity, development cooperation, healthcare, rural revitalization and people's wellbeing, people-to-people exchanges, green development, and common security, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry.

He Wenping mentioned several topics likely to be covered during Wang's visit, from infrastructure and energy cooperation to broader capacity building, in addition to the key pillar of trade relations. 

China has remained Africa's largest trading partner for 15th consecutive year, while the proportion of China-Africa trade in Africa's total foreign trade has steadily increased, the Xinhua News Agency reported.  

China has also given all least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China, including 33 African countries, zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines. 

The most urgent mission and top priority for African countries is development and that the China-proposed Global Development Initiative is well received in this continent, while the Global Security Initiative sheds light on how to tackle some regional issues and create a secured environment for development, He said. 

The expert said that strengthening China-Africa relations represents a way to guide the modernization process of the Global South. China and African countries are set to enhance cooperation of the Global South in international structures such as BRICS and G20, He said. 

Song believes China and Africa are key components and the foundation of the collective rise of the Global South. Comprehensive cooperation between China and Africa will inject growth momentum, further consolidate the consensus of the Global South and promote global governance toward a more just and democratic direction, Song said.