Zhou Yongkang of the Communist Party of China and Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha
While President Barack Obama was meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday in Beijing, top Sudanese government officials were inking a new deal with a visiting Chinese delegation in Khartoum. Not yet covered by the English-language press, Al-Rai Al-Aam(an Arabic-language Sudanese newspaper that leans heavily to Omar al-Bashir’s National Congress Party) ran a leading story this morning with the headline: “The government welcomes China’s plan for joint cooperation.”
The series of agreements brokered between the two governments comes two days after the announcement of the first non-stop flight between Beijing and Khartoum. The multi-layered package of support will focus cooperation in four fields: energy, infrastructure, agriculture and food, and training and capacity building. There was also a commitment to develop stronger national ties by opening cultural centers and connecting universities.
Of probably greatest importance, China pledged to work with Sudan to double its oil production and continue to finance large-scale development projects. To those ends, the two parties signed two loans worth a collective $46 million and a grant of $11 million.
Xinhua reports that senior Communist Party of China (CPC) officials hailed their country’s relations with Sudan in their public comments. Zhou Yongkang of the CPC said that he was “pleased to see that Sudan has become one of the fast growing economies in Africa and has improved its people’s standards of living while advancing national reconciliation.”
He also stated that:
Sudan has become China’s third largest trade partner in Africa…China is Sudan’s largest trade partner…Zhou said 2009, which also marks the 10th anniversary of an oil cooperation project between the two countries, is an important year in the history of the Chinese-Sudanese friendship.
In order to enhance the bilateral relationship, China and Sudan should promote political mutual trust, deepen their economic and trade cooperation and expand their exchanges.
With this visit, the Chinese delegation has unabashedly affirmed China’s long-term support of the Sudanese government. The fact that this deal was struck while Obama was in China makes the presidential silence on Sudan – that Jerry addressed this morning – so much more glaring.
