China-Africa Cooperation Forum Summit (FOCAC) in Beijing on 3-4 September, 2018

photo: unaids.org

The China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC), established in 2000, plays an important role in Chinese politics in Africa. Conferences or forum summits are held once every three years. Each time, China sums up cooperation over the past three years and announces a new program of cooperation with Africa. Something is repeated in it, but in a slightly different quality, something is being announced for the first time. The amount of funding that China will provide to Africa in the form of loans, etc. in the next three years is announced each time. This year marks the 18th anniversary of FOCAC activities. On September 3-4, 2018, the regular FOCAC meeting was held in Beijing. The Chinese authorities raised its level from the conference to the summit, taking into account, as stated by the speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, Geng Shuang, the great needs of African countries and the practical necessity of developing Chinese-African relations. This is the third FOCAC summit (the first was held in Beijing in 2006, the second in Johannesburg in 2015).