EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says Europe offers the continent the “most reliable” partnership as China and Russia court impoverished and vulnerable African with offers of security or loans.
The chief further added in an interview with AFP ahead of a visit to Senegal that she will use the trip to unveil the first African scheme with a new investment scheme dubbed Global Gateway. The Global Gateway initiative is the EU’s response to China’s Belt and Road initiative, with the aim of mobilizing investments of nearly 300 billion euros ($340bn) for the public and private infrastructure on a global platform.
On Wednesday, the president of the EU’s powerful executive arrived in Dakar for preparing for a summit between the EU and African Union on February 17-18.
The chief is also scheduled to meet the Senegalese President Macky Sall. Sall has recently assumed the AU presidency.
She said they need to work more to tackle today’s challenges like climate change or health. She believes the EU and AU need to set their own positive agenda that will directly benefit the growth of their people.
Earlier EU invested 20 billion incontinent, plus loans and guarantees.
