Mozambique not begging China for help over debts – Nyusi

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Mozambique not begging China for help over debts – Nyusi

8:02 CAT | 23 May 2016

In File Club of Mozambique / President of Mozambique Filipe Jacinto Nyusi (L) seen here with president of China Xi Jinping (R)

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi told reporters on Saturday that he did not come to China to beg for help to deal with the country’s current debt crisis.

Speaking in the city of Jinan, at the end of his six day state visit, Nyusi pointed out that the visit had been planned before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended its aid to Mozambique following the discovery that well over a billion dollars of government-guaranteed loans had not been disclosed.

“No, we didn’t come here to ask for assistance in paying our debts!”, he exclaimed. “This is Mozambique’s problem, and we’re not asking anybody else to solve it”.

There was money available from China – aid of 60 billion US dollars for all of Africa had been announced last year, consisting of five billion dollars in grants, 35 billion in soft loans, and 20 billion for private sector initiatives. If Mozambique wished to benefit from this funding, it would have to present credible projects.

Asked whether the repeated declaration of a “global strategic partnership” between Mozambique and China might anger the United States, particularly given the current tariff war between the US and China (Nyusi’s visit coincides with the US announcement of 550 per cent increase in tariffs on imported Chinese steel), Nyusi insisted that the partnership is not aimed at any other country.

“We are friends of the Americans”, he said. “We have a partnership with the Americans too”. He did not believe that tariff disputes indicated any deeper conflict between China and the US. Furthermore, there was “a good relationship” between the Presidents of the two countries, Xi Jinping and Barack Obama.

He stressed that China does not interfere in the internal affairs of its partners, including Mozambique. Instead, the Chinese government believed “the destinies of Mozambique are a matter for the Mozambicans”.

Nyusi praised the participation of Mozambican parliamentarians in his delegation. Deputies from the parliamentary groups of the ruling Frelimo Party and the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) participated fully in the work of the delegation. “They showed a patriotic attitude, and a sense of state”, he said.

As usual in such events, the largest opposition party, the rebel movement Renamo, although invited, boycotted the visit.

Source: AIM