Yu Dunhai
As Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria and to ECOWAS, I had the honour and privilege of handing over the commemorative key of the building to H.E. Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, President of the ECOWAS Commission, personally witnessing this important moment that will be forever recorded in the history of friendly cooperation between China and ECOWAS.
Since the formal establishment of relations in the 1990s, China and ECOWAS have upheld the principles of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit, and win-win cooperation. We have deepened political mutual trust, strengthened practical cooperation, expanded cooperation in peace and security, and intensified people-to-people exchanges, actively building a strategic partnership that has become a model of South-South cooperation. Looking back over more than half a century of standing together through thick and thin, the profound friendship between China and ECOWAS remains as fresh as ever and continues to thrive with strong vitality.
Political mutual trust forms the important foundation for the healthy development of China-ECOWAS relations. China respects ECOWAS’s independently chosen path of development and supports ECOWAS in playing a leading role in West African affairs. In 2003, the Chinese government formally appointed a representative to ECOWAS, concurrently served by the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, opening a new chapter in China-ECOWAS relations. High-level interactions between the two sides are frequent. We maintain close coordination within multilateral frameworks such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the African Union, and hold similar positions on issues including climate change, food security, and global governance reform.
China has repeatedly reaffirmed its support for ECOWAS in advancing the regional integration process, respects the right of regional countries to independently resolve their internal affairs, and opposes external interference in West Africa’s internal affairs. ECOWAS and its member states firmly adhere to the one-China principle and have provided strong support to China on issues regarding its core interests and major concerns.
Practical cooperation serves as the core driving force for upgrading the quality and efficiency of China-ECOWAS relations.
Leveraging the FOCAC and the Belt and Road Initiative, bilateral cooperation has extended from traditional infrastructure such as roads and ports to new areas including the digital economy, green energy, and modern agriculture, with outcomes benefiting thousands of households across West Africa. China has announced that starting from May 1 this year, it will fully implement zero-tariff treatment for 53 African countries with diplomatic relations with China, significantly lowering the threshold for West African products to enter the Chinese market. Chinese agricultural experts have taken root in West Africa, promoting high-yield crop cultivation techniques and water-saving irrigation models to help the region enhance its food self-sufficiency.
Through technical training, capacity building, and material assistance, China supports ECOWAS in improving its integrated governance capabilities in areas such as public administration, customs supervision, and disaster response, injecting strong momentum into regional sustainable development.
Cooperation in peace and security is an important guarantee for the steady and long-term development of China-ECOWAS relations. ECOWAS plays a key role in regional peacekeeping, stability maintenance, and crisis mediation. China consistently upholds the common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security concept and actively supports ECOWAS in enhancing its independent security capabilities. Since the 1990s, China has participated in United Nations peacekeeping operations in West African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire, making important contributions to the restoration of peace and stability in the region.
China actively supports ECOWAS in building capacity for counter-terrorism, stability maintenance, border control, and humanitarian assistance, helping the region address security risks at their root. China advocates that development is the fundamental solution to security issues. By promoting economic cooperation and improving people’s livelihoods and employment, China helps lay a solid social foundation for long-term peace and stability in West Africa, achieving a virtuous cycle between security and development.
People-to-people exchanges serve as a bridge connecting the hearts and minds of China and ECOWAS. Exchanges in education, culture, tourism, media, youth, and other fields between the two sides have become increasingly close. China continues to provide government scholarships to ECOWAS member states, training a large number of localized talents for West Africa.
Every year, hundreds of West African youth travel to China to pursue further studies in fields such as engineering and technology, medical and health sciences, agricultural science and technology, and public administration. Chinese medical teams have long been stationed in West Africa, carrying out disease prevention and treatment, medical training, and emergency rescue. They have fought side by side with the West African people in combating public health emergencies such as the Ebola epidemic and COVID-19. Activities such as mutual visits by cultural groups, art exhibitions, and film and television exchanges have enhanced mutual understanding, with China’s intangible cultural heritage and West Africa’s traditional music and dance complementing each other brilliantly.
Against the backdrop of a turbulent international situation and the accelerated advancement of African integration, China-ECOWAS relations are ushering in broader prospects for development. China is ready to work with ECOWAS to seize development opportunities, tackle common challenges, and push bilateral cooperation to a new level in the following four aspects:
First, we will continue to deepen political mutual trust, maintain regular communication at all levels, improve institutionalized cooperation platforms, strengthen coordination and collaboration in multilateral affairs, and jointly safeguard the common interests of developing countries.
Second, we will promote the quality upgrading of practical cooperation, strengthen the alignment between China’s 15th Five-Year Plan and ECOWAS’s Vision 2050, fully release the benefits of zero-tariff treatment, and promote industrial upgrading and economic diversification in West Africa.
Third, we will jointly safeguard regional peace and stability, strengthen cooperation in non-traditional security fields, pursue security through development and ensure development through stability, and help West Africa achieve lasting peace and security.
Fourth, we will cultivate deeper roots of people-to-people friendship, take the opportunity of successfully hosting this year’s “China-Africa Year of People to People Exchanges” to expand in-depth exchanges in the humanities field and enhance mutual understanding and affinity between the peoples of the two sides.
Deep roots lead to lush fruits; fertile soil produces brilliance. The friendly cooperation between China and ECOWAS has been tempered by time and its foundation has become ever more solid. Looking ahead, the tree of China-West Africa friendship will surely grow with luxuriant branches and leaves, bearing abundant fruits. I firmly believe that the new chapter in China-ECOWAS relations that we jointly write will make even greater contributions to building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future and to promoting development and prosperity in West Africa and across the entire African continent.
* Yu Dunhai, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria and to ECOWAS’ speech at the handover of the China-aid ECOWAS Headquarters Building in Abuja on April 28, 2026
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