BEIJING – China is enjoying its “best in history” ties with African nations, leader Xi Jinping said on Thursday, as he pledged USD 50 billion in financial support for the continent in addition to military aid.

China and Africa should rally their populations together to become a “powerful force” and write a “new chapter in peace, prosperity and progress,” Xi said in a sweeping speech to delegates from more than 50 African nations as he sought to bolster relationships seen as key to Beijing’s position as a rising global power.

Flanked by African dignitaries seated on stage in the cavernous Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi said “China-Africa relations are at their best in history,” and vowed to elevate China’s bilateral relations with all African countries with which it has formal ties to the level of “strategic relations.”

Xi separately pledged another USD 280 million in aid to African countries, split evenly between military and food assistance. The announcements are a sign Beijing wants to demonstrate its commitment to the continent, despite a recent slowdown in its overseas development lending and as Africa struggles with its foreign debt, including those owed to China.

The pledge of USD 140 million in military aid is the largest amount that China has earmarked for this purpose at the three-yearly Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, signaling the increasing importance of security in the relationship between Beijing and its partners in Africa. In 2018, China said it would provide USD 100 million to support the African Standby Force and African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis. Leaders including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Kenya’s William Ruto and Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu assembled in the Chinese capital this week for the three-day forum that Beijing has hailed as its largest diplomatic gathering in years.

This year’s event comes amid questions about the direction of those relations as Beijing, long the driving foreign economic power in Africa, has been recalibrating its extensive economic ties to the continent, while other major powers are ramping up their own efforts to engage Africa. China has been pulling back on big-ticket spending under Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. That infrastructure drive saw it fund projects like railways, roads and power plants and expand its influence on the continent. However, it also faced criticism that unsustainable lending contributed to heavy international debt loads now shouldered by many African countries. Xi did not mention these debt challenges in his address but did make broad pledges for China to deepen cooperation with Africa in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, trade and investment. (CNN)…[+]