CAIRO — Throughout a gathering with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Beijing on the sidelines of the Olympic Winter Video games, Chinese language President Xi Jinping stated that China and Egypt will proceed to help one another.
“China and Egypt share related visions and methods in defending their very own pursuits, pursuing widespread growth, enhancing their folks’s well-being and selling equity and justice on the planet, because the world is present process adjustments unseen in a century,” Xi stated Feb. 5, in accordance with a statement by the Egyptian presidency.
The Chinese language president additionally burdened the “complete strategic partnership” between Beijing and Cairo that has turn into “a mannequin of solidarity between China and Arab, African and growing nations.”
In line with the Egyptian presidency’s assertion, the assembly between the 2 heads of state additionally touched on problems with widespread curiosity for each nations, primarily the developments within the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which have been at a stalemate because the last round of negotiations amongst Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. Tripartite talks had been final held in early April 2021 however failed to succeed in an settlement.
The water situation, usually, and the GERD disaster particularly, are at the moment of main concern for the Egyptian authorities. Subsequently, Xi’s assertion raised questions on a shift within the Chinese language place, particularly after the speech final July of the everlasting consultant of China to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, in the course of the UN Safety Council extraordinary session on the GERD.
The Chinese language delegate referred to as for the resumption of negotiations underneath African Union auspices to finish the dam. Jun’s place dismayed Egypt, which maintains shut ties with China, in accordance with an article by Mustafa al-Sayed, a professor of politics at Cairo College, printed on July 18, 2021, in al-Shorouk newspaper.
“Beijing is attempting to emphasize that it’s not a celebration to the disaster, maybe as a result of the Chinese language really feel that Cairo had reservations in regards to the Chinese language place after the UN session,” stated Tarek Fahmy, one other professor of politics at Cairo College, “However after all, China’s place is according to the worldwide method to the GERD disaster relating to the necessity to return to the negotiating desk as soon as extra.”
Since it’s inconceivable to withdraw Chinese language investments from Ethiopia, Fahmy advised Al-Monitor, it was unlikely for Beijing to vary its place on the dam situation. “The Chinese language president’s remarks could be interpreted inside the framework of Beijing’s keenness to keep up good relations with Cairo,” he added.
China views Ethiopia as an necessary political and financial ally. China is Ethiopia’s first commerce companion, with a complete commerce alternate amounting to about $4.5 billion in 2018, and direct investments in Ethiopia reaching greater than $2.5 billion in 2018, according to the unbiased Egyptian Heart for Strategic Research.
In the meantime, Egyptian items and providers commerce with China totaled $12.9 billion in 2020. China’s exports to Egypt amounted to over $12 billion, whereas its imports from Egypt for a similar interval stood at over $835 million, in accordance with Han Ping, the financial advisor to the Chinese language embassy in Cairo.
China can be implementing a number of tasks in Egypt, together with the primary clear coal power station on the Pink Beach, along with the tallest skyscraper in Africa as a part of the great strategic partnership agreement signed by Egypt and China in 2014.
Nadia Helmy, an assistant professor of political science at Beni-Suef College, advised Al-Monitor, “The political decision-makers in China have a tendency to not absolutely interact within the GERD disaster between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.” Egypt, which suffers from water scarcity, views the GERD as an existential threat, because it fears that the dam would scale back its share from the Nile waters. “Whereas Sudan shares the identical considerations with Egypt, Ethiopia considers the dam as a way to attaining growth via energy era,” she stated.
Helmy added, “China can be an upstream nation for a number of worldwide rivers, which share borders with different nations. Therefore, the Chinese language concern that any mediation within the GERD disaster in favor of Egypt would weaken its stance as an upstream nation,” particularly on the Mekong River.
“Furthermore, China can be embarking on the construction of the biggest power manufacturing dam on the planet,” Helmy added, within the Tibet Autonomous Area in China, alongside the Brahmaputra River, which is anticipated to lift issues with India and Bangladesh.
