Benin’s Patrice Talon visits China next week

Benin’s President Patrice Talon is expected in China next Tuesday August 29 for talks with the Chinese top leader Xi Jinping, local medias report.

The visit will highlight by the holding of an economic summit. The visit comes seven months after both countries signed in January 2023 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on partial debt cancellation. The MoU was signed during the visit China’s top diplomat, Qin Gang, paid to the West African country.

Qin Gang had then said his visit was meant to “identify more fields of action”. “China intends to work together with Benin to implement the projects agreed upon by both parties in the framework of the implementation of the nine programs of Africa-China cooperation for the next three years. The programs were retained during the China-Africa Cooperation Forum.

The projects cover infrastructure in the manufacturing and health sectors, as well as other priority cooperation projects on which the two countries must work to ensure the well-being of the Beninese people, the Chinse Foreign Minister had said.

“I am thinking for example of infrastructure, agriculture, human resources training, manufacturing and peace and security,” he had said.

The two countries celebrated in December last year 50 years of cooperation.