China, Kenya upgrade ties amid turbulence

CHINA and Kenya announced they had upgraded ties to a “new level” yesterday during a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Kenyan President William Ruto in Beijing, as they both pledged to create an “all weather” China-Africa community.

- 

In a joint China-Kenya statement, both leaders said they were “committed to injecting more stability into the world with the certainty of China-Africa solidarity and cooperation”.

This would provide a backbone to safeguard the “common interests of developing countries’, it said, and defend the multilateral system, via “inclusive economic globalisation”.

The decision to upgrade China-Kenya relations was made “in the face of a turbulent international situation’, the Chinese president was quoted as saying in a separate media pool report.

Africa is a key focus of Xi’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, launched in 2013 to extend China's geopolitical and economic influence through global infrastructure development.