China's Advance, Mugabe Debate Will Dominate EU-Africa Meeting

Dec. 6 -- European leaders will seek closer economic ties with Africa at a weekend summit to counter China's growing influence on the continent, while grappling with discord caused by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's attendance.

The heads of government, meeting in Lisbon Dec. 8-9, will discuss how to deepen cooperation with Africa in areas including peace and security, governance, human rights and poverty alleviation. It's part of a strategy adopted in December 2005 aimed at reasserting the European Union's influence on the continent and forming a ``strategic partnership.''

``China's role in Africa is a wake-up call for the EU, which has for too long taken Africa and its relationship with the continent for granted,'' Christopher Alden of the London School of Economics and author of ``China in Africa'' said in a telephone interview.

China has agreed to double aid to Africa by 2009 and provide $8 billion in loans and investment, eroding Europe's clout that dates back to the colonial era of the 19th century. President Hu Jintao's government, which needs to secure access to oil and other resources to fuel China's 11.5 percent growth rate, attaches no political demands to the aid and investment.

``China is a very different player than the EU. It has far fewer scruples, so it's easy money for Africa. Although the EU tends to shroud itself in moral language, it's now trying to treat its African partners more as equals,'' John Kotsopoulos, an Africa expert at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre, said in a telephone interview.

Gordon Brown

The summit will bring together representatives from 53 African and 27 European states. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown won't attend, saying he refuses to sit at the same table as Mugabe due to human rights concerns. Several other leaders with patchy human rights records, including Sudan's Umar al-Bashir and Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, may attend.

Trade between China and Africa swelled 40 percent to $55.5 billion in 2006, making the Asian nation Africa's third-largest trading partner after the EU and the U.S. More than 800 Chinese companies currently do business in Africa.

``China's growing role in Africa has led some people, who were otherwise distracted, to say that if China's this interested then we'd better be interested too,'' Joao Gomes Cravinho, deputy foreign minister of Portugal which holds the European Union's rotating, six-month presidency, said in a phone interview.

Standard Bank Group

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. agreed on Oct. 25 to buy 20 percent of Johannesburg-based Standard Bank Group Ltd., the continent's largest lender, for $5.4 billion, in the biggest overseas investment by a Chinese company.

Sinosteel Corp., China's second-biggest iron-ore trading company, won government approval on Oct. 18 to buy a majority stake in Zimasco Ltd., Zimbabwe's largest ferrochrome producer, while China National Petroleum Corp. is the biggest foreign investor in Sudan.

Zimbabwe is in its ninth year of economic recession and has the world's fastest-shrinking peacetime economy and highest inflation rate. Brown blames Mugabe and says he is guilty of ``widespread torture and mass intimidation of the political opposition,'' while Mugabe accuses Zimbabwe's former colonial master of reneging on promises to fund land reform.

European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Mugabe's human rights record shouldn't derail the talks. The African Union, South Africa and other African states insisted that Mugabe be invited.

Darfur

Sudan's al-Bashir has been accused by Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy of failing to stem a conflict in the western Darfur region that has killed at least 200,000 people and turned 2.5 million into refugees since 2004.

European and African leaders last held a summit seven years ago. A meeting planned for 2003 was canceled, amid objections over Mugabe's plans to attend.

``Mugabe's received an invitation like everybody else,'' Portugal's Cravinho said. ``Mugabe is not the example of an African leader that anybody should look up to, but there are 53 countries in Africa and it's a mistake to reduce the entire continent to Mugabe.''

Some African leaders acknowledge the continent needs to do more to promote peace and good governance if it wants European aid and investment to address poverty. About 39 percent of Africa's 924 million people live on less than $1 a day, according to the Tunis-based African Development Bank.

`Decreasing Role'

Fredrik Erixon, head of the Brussels-based European Centre for International Political Economy, a research institute, said competition Africa faces from Asia and other developing regions and the failure of the EU so far to reach new African trade agreements ``risked deepening the continent's decreasing role in the world economy.''

``Asian growth over the next 20 years means that Africa will remain a backwater,'' Erixon said in a telephone interview. ``Asia is the main interest of other countries for foreign direct investment, setting up supply links, building new hubs or markets.''

The LSE's Alden disagrees. ``While European interest may be diverted to Asia it won't cut investment in Africa. What's also important is that the U.S. is becoming a big African investor,'' he said.