On Monday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with visiting Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, emphasizing the need of “deepening mutually beneficial win-win cooperation and continuously enriching their strategic partnership” between the two countries.
Eritrea’s Red Sea position, between the Suez Canal and Europe to the north and the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean to the southeast, may make it strategically important for China as it seeks to expand its influence in the Horn of Africa.
Djibouti, which Eritrea shares a border with, became the site of China’s first overseas military installation built by the People’s Liberation Army in 2017.
Afwerki, who has been in power since Eritrea’s independence from neighboring Ethiopia in 1993, told Li that the People’s Republic of China’s efforts to foster a more just and equitable relationship between people and nations would inevitably result in global challenges and a rethinking of existing systems.
In March, it was revealed that Eritrea’s military forces had committed war crimes during the two-year conflict with Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. The story, however, was denounced by Eritrea’s foreign ministry as “unsubstantiated and defamatory.”
Africa and the rest of the world, which has been neglected, “will heavily defend and expect more contributions from the People’s Republic of China,” according to Afwerki.
