Forum on China–Africa Cooperation

So there should be a well-organized kind of policies and cooperation that for sure will be honest and reliable because Africa is relying on China.

And since 2000, when FOCAC was formed, There has been a lot, a great step.

China has been a reliable friend to us and Tanzania.

So let us protect that.

It was great to be on your show.

Jiro, Kobus, what did you think? This is a very timely conversation right now, in part because we have FOCAC coming up next year.

China projects quite often that it feels that there's a lot to learn from its development model.

Yake is talking about how really pushing back on the European mindset, too, that development, democracy, all of that goes together.

Well, let's quickly move on.

We'll have more on these visits, especially we're going to see these visits escalate and increase in frequency over the next year in the lead up to next November's Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, FOCAC summit that's going to take place.

Actually, we don't know if it's a summit.

They haven't told us if leaders are going to go, if Xi will go.

I suspect Xi is going to go because this is FOCAC 10 summit.

But we haven't confirmed that yet.

So it could be a FOCAC conference or meeting or a summit.

But we're going to see this.

When was that? Last year, June, June, June, 2025.

Really? And I've been to Beijing, Foucault in 2024, September.

I've been, this year I've been to Beijing twice, just doing investment promotion mission.

So yeah, I've been here quite a couple of times.

I'm wondering, because you also mentioned this railway network across Southern Africa, is there a certain progress on the railway cooperation between our two countries? Upgrading?

There hasn't been much progress owing to a couple of factors.

One of them could be the fact that immediately after that FOCAC, there was a change of government.

Now we have a new government.

In our previous three episodes, we shared stories from the second season of our special series, Together Forward.

We launched the series last year to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, or FOCAC.

This year, the series takes on added meaning as we celebrate 70 years of diplomatic relations between China and Africa and the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges.

As we did last year, we held an in-person event to share these stories with audiences from China and Africa.

Um, I've seen some, uh, familiar faces there who were with us last year, right? Thank you so much for coming.

We launched it on October the 10th.

It's because, um, exactly on October the 10th until October the 12th, the first ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, FOCAC, was held, and, uh, that ushers in the establishment of the FOCAC mechanism.

And, um, this event is actually a co-production with Professor Zhang Yanqiu and her team here at the CUC.

The partnership built on the principles of sovereign equality, mutual respect, and non-interference has steadily matured over time.

In September 2024, during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing, the two nations officially upgraded their bilateral framework to a strategic partnership.

Bilateral cooperation between the countries spans several key sectors, from modern infrastructure, public health, human capacity building, and digital innovation.

Over the decades, China has dispatched regular medical teams to Botswana, provided higher education scholarships, and supported agricultural technical exchanges.