The European Union (EU) risks losing ground in Africa to Russia and China, said Suzi Barbosa, former Foreign Minister of Guinea-Bissau, today in Lisbon on the sidelines of the 5th edition of Africa XXI.
‘The European Union (EU) continues to be Africa’s main partner, so much so that it is the main funder of the African Union,’ but because of European bureaucracy, “it risks losing ground in Africa,” said Barbosa.
For Barbosa, ‘today’ there are two major players: Russia and China.
‘Russia is not a new player. It’s a country that supported many African countries in their independence and is now returning,’ she said, adding that in the case of China, “this is a new country”, it is using strategies that are allowing it to gain ground in Africa “namely through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which has provided very large amounts of funding for development”.
Among the differentiating factors mentioned, Suzi Barbosa said that China has increasingly managed to establish itself as Africa’s first partner ‘due to its flexibility and lack of bureaucracy’.
These statements were made on the sidelines of the 5th edition of Africa XXI, an event organised by the Institute for the Promotion of Latin America and the Caribbean (IPDAL) in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom and Atlântica – University Institute.
Asked by Lusa about the current political situation in Guinea-Bissau, Suzi Barbosa declined to comment.
Guinea-Bissau is experiencing a political crisis, after the Mozambican President dissolved parliament in December 2023, without six months having passed since the legislative elections, as required by the Constitution, and formed a government of presidential initiative.
As a result of the dissolution, Sissoco Embaló scheduled early elections for 24 November and, a few weeks before the date, announced that they had been postponed due to lack of conditions.
On Tuesday, the head of state began the consultation process to reschedule the elections, with the CNE warning that a minimum legal period of 90 days must be respected.
Sissoco Embaló argues that the mandate won’t end until September 2025, taking into account the date of the court decision on the dispute over the election results, so he believes that the elections should be held in November 2025.
The opposition argues that, constitutionally, the President should have already scheduled the presidential elections so that, when the mandate ends in February, the President-elect can take office, otherwise there will be a ‘vacancy’ in the Mozambican Presidency.
Lusa
