A strategic partnership for Libya, Chinese firms in Egypts CBD, a recap of FOCAC in North Africa, economic ties between Asia and the Gulf in The Economist
China, Libya establish strategic partnership as leaders meet in Beijing - Xinhua. I called it! In June I wrote:
Right now, the only countries that don’t have a partnership agreement of any type with China are Comoros, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. I suspect Libya will be the next, given the meetings that were held on the sidelines of the CASCF. But in the other cases there is an obvious reason why there is no strategic partnership with China: the bilateral doesn’t have any strategic relevance.
We’d gone from seeing very little news about China-Libya relations for a decade, and then starting around the CASCF in May there’s be a steady trickle of developments. I’m not surprised that Libya is the latest MENA country to get a Chinese strategic partnership - I’ve been anticipating it for the last 3 months. If you want to get up to speed on China’s strategic partnership diplomacy, check out this post I published here in June. For now, we’ve got the standard statements about “safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and finding a path for peace, stability and prosperity through dialogue and consultation” and BRI cooperation.
Egyptians shape their future skyline with Chinese support - Xinhua. More PR than reporting, but this piece talks about Chinese firms’ work in developing Egypt’s Central Business District (CBD), a landmark project that goes a long way to demonstrating what China’s good at doing - building important stuff - while not going into the details of how it gets financed. The CBD is 50km east of Cairo, so the goal is to hopefully shift some of the congestion away from there, inshallah.
The CBD project consists of 20 towers that were all built simultaneously, along with a Central Utility Complex (CUC). The 20 high-rise buildings include 10 office towers, five residential towers, four hotels, and the Iconic Tower, according to Ahmed El-Banna, the CBD project manager from international consulting company Dar Al-Handasah.
"By the end of this year, we will deliver 15 towers, including 10 office towers and five residential ones, and we will also deliver the CUC," he added, noting that the remaining four hotel buildings and the Iconic Tower are scheduled to be delivered in 2025.
At Africa summit, China elevates ties with Libya, invests $14M in Egypt - Al Monitor. A good overview of FOCAC developments in North Africa.
Commercial ties between the Gulf and Asia are deepening - The Economist. Lots of interesting stuff in this article.
A growing number of Asian companies are putting down roots in the Gulf, signalling long-term commitments. Greenfield foreign direct investment from Asia to the Gulf rocketed from $4bn in 2018 to $26bn last year, according to fDi Markets, a data provider (see chart 1). By contrast, investment from America went from around $4bn to just under $7bn in 2023.
If you’re interested in a deeper look into Asia-Gulf ties, Li-Chen Sim and I published this edited volume in 2022 looking at how these growing relations shape strategic considerations. It’s available as open-access, meaning you can download all the chapters as PDFs from this site. Here’s the book description:
Gulf stability is coming to play a larger role in the foreign policy calculus of many states, but the evolving role of Asian powers is largely under-represented in the International Relations literature. This volume addresses this gap with a set of empirically rich, theory driven case studies written by academics from or based in the countries in question. The underlying assumption is not that Asian powers have already become important security actors in the Gulf, but rather that they perceive the Gulf as a region of increasing strategic relevance. How will leaders in these countries adjust to an evolving regional framework? Will there be coordinated efforts to establish an Asian-centered approach to Gulf stability, or will Asian rivalries make the region a theater of competition? Will US–China tensions force alignment choices among Asian powers? Will Asian states balance, bandwagon, hedge, or adopt some other approach to their Gulf relationships? These questions become even more important as the western boundaries of Asia increasingly come to incorporate the Middle East. The book will appeal to scholars and students in the fields of International Relations, Security Studies, and International Political Economy, as well as area specialists on the Gulf and those working on foreign policy issues on each of the Asian countries included. Professionals in government and non-government agencies will also find it very useful.
Unless anything significant happens, I won’t be posting over the weekend and next week will be in Armenia for a conference, so will probably be posting less then as well. Have a great weekend.