This archive report was first published on 18 June 2020.
On June 17, 2020, President Xi Jinping of China convened an extraordinary China-Africa Summit on solidarity against COVID-19, which was attended by African leaders including President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya.
President Xi assured African countries that his country will continue providing technical and material support needed to defeat the virus in Africa, including debt relief in line with the G20 moratorium and the FOCAC framework.
He also assured African leaders that his government will ensure Africa is among the first to benefit from the COVID-19 vaccine once it is rolled out.
President Kenyatta thanked China for the COVID-19 related support given to African countries, including Kenya, and appealed for more economic interventions by China to aid African economies recover from the adverse effects of the pandemic.
President Xi urged African leaders to stick together in upholding multilateralism and oppose the politicization and stigmatization of the Coronavirus pandemic.
China has committed $2 billion to the global fight against COVID-19 over the next two years, and the African Union will launch the African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) on Thursday to enable African countries access large quantities of critical COVID-19 response supplies at competitive prices.
