Can Europe Compete with China in Africa’s Growth Story? | Raisina Mediterranean 2025

Africa and the West: A More Equal Partnership

For decades, Europe and the West positioned themselves as Africa’s primary partners—through aid, peacekeeping, and trade. Today, that legacy is fraying. Trade barriers are being erected and aid flows have dried up. As trade between various African nations and China topped $280 billion in 2023, Beijing has emerged as an important trade, infrastructure and developmental partner. As the nations of the continent rework their worldview and build new relationships, how can the West reimagine its role in the continent with the most economic potential?

Does the West retain strategic influence in parts of the continent? Is it losing ground because its companies and investors are more divorced from state policy than China’s?
What role is the European Union playing as a development and technology partner in, for example, North Africa?
Can the Africa development story continue even if Western private capital becomes difficult to access?

Speaker:
Karim El Aynaoui, Executive President, Policy Center for the New South (PCNS), Morocco
Gwendoline Abunaw, Managing Director, Ecobank Cameroon, Cameroon

Moderator: Kirtbir Chahal, Head of Africa and Middle East Infrastructure Partnerships, Department for Business and Trade, United Kingdom

#africa #internationalrelations #geopolitics #globalsouth #economicgrowth #europe

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