Author: EBRIMA BARRY
CENTRAL CHINA NORMAL UNIVERSITY, PR CHINA
The Republic of China established diplomatic ties with The Gambia in 1968. As said, “there is no permanent friend and enemy in international relations, the only permanent is the country’s national interest.” The Gambia is a developing country at the moment so it needs diplomatic and economic support in global politics. For the country’s larger interests, it has to take rapid actions, shaping priorities and seeking new friends in international relations.
China is the world’s second-largest economy and a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Being responsible power, China is playing a constructive role in global politics as well. The priority for developing nations like the Gambia has changed towards China.
In August 2017, China offered Gambia support in infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, and other areas.
It could be recalled that in January 2019, the State Councilor and Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Wang Yi, held talks with his Gambian counterpart, Dr. Mamadou Tangara, during which the Chinese Foreign Minister said China and Gambia have restored exchanges in various fields and achieved notable results in cooperation on major infrastructure projects, enabling the bilateral friendship to take root among the two peoples.
He had noted then that, since the resumption of China-Gambia diplomatic relations more than two years ago, their bilateral relations have seen rapid development on all fronts in their relations.
Mr. Wang Yi praised the diplomatic shift of the Gambia for its firm adherence to the “one-China Policy”.
China and Gambia should step up communication and coordination to implement the major consensus between leaders of the two countries, and the results from the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit, Wang said.
In this respect, he suggested that Gambia combines the China-Africa cooperation initiatives proposed at the FOCAC Beijing Summit with its National Development Plan and find priorities, to push for progress in various fields of bilateral cooperation to benefit both sides.
The Gambian foreign policy based on mutual trust and interests, China is willing to support the economic and social development of the country.
The Gambia’s Foreign Minister, for his part, said the Gambia firmly adheres to the one-China policy and will support China on various international occasions as well as on issues of core interest, pushing further development of bilateral ties on the right track.
In July 2019, China’s ambassador to The Gambia has told the Gambian government that his country would invest further in the West African country’s fisheries sector.
According to the Reuters, in 2018 Gambian President Adama Barrow told Chinese President Xi Jinping that his country’s previous ties with self-ruled Taiwan had been a “huge mistake”, and he thanked China for all the help it had given subsequently.
China has assisted the Gambia in all sectors including improving communications, transport, and roads. Barrow said he “believed that with China’s cooperation, Gambia will achieve speeded-up development.”
The bilateral relations between China and Gambia will further develop on all fronts to improve the country’s infrastructure and economic relations. Resuming bilateral diplomatic relations fully conforms to the fundamental interests of the Gambia and its people, the universal consensus on the one-China principle, and the common aspiration for unity and cooperation by the Chinese and African people.
Strengthening diplomatic and economic relations with China is an important policy of Gambian foreign policy priorities. Besides the state to state-level relations, the exchange of people to people contact is also necessary with two nations. China and Gambia should setup major cooperation and coordination between the two countries.
In conclusion, western propaganda in tarnishing and degrading china’s image to the world is a concern to many. Africa and Gambia in particular should learn from the past; we should learn from western colonization and humiliation of black people. No one will deny that it’s western colonization and humiliation that had immensely contributed to the poverty and lack of development in Africa.
Philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.
Africans should withdraw from the blame game; its time for us to take responsibility for our own interest and development.
Most importantly, finding true friends whose interest is mutual to respective nations, like Gambia as the smallest country in mainland Africa, has no regret in establishing diplomatic ties with China.
China has been playing a leading role in Africa’s development agendas