The PLA Navy missile destroyer Harbin participates in a counter-piracy exercise with the US Navy in the Gulf of Aden on August 25, 2013. The crisis in Sudan offers China and the United States another opportunity to cooperate to benefit the Global South. Photo: Xinhua
Opinion
Emanuele Scimia
Emanuele Scimia
Why US-China anti-piracy efforts offer hope for cooperation on ending Sudan war
Tensions between China and the US and Europe are high, but there is reason to believe they can still collaborate for the greater good following years of working together to fight piracy in the Gulf of Aden
War-torn Sudan, where a fragile ceasefire is in place, could offer China and the West an opportunity for cooperation to stabilise the greater Horn of Africa. Geopolitical tensions between the two camps have skyrocketed in recent years, and they need a common interest to start resetting relations.
There is reason to believe this cooperation could be fruitful as China, the United States and Europe have already worked together successfully for years in their united fight against piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The turbulent East Africa region is a vital node in world trade, located along the shipping route connecting Europe with East Asia through the Malacca Strait and the Taiwan Strait.
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has implications that can influence the balance of power between Beijing and Washington, limiting the room for Sino-US collaboration, a regional crisis in the “Global South” has a softer geopolitical footprint and thus the potential for a win-win interaction.
After the international community looked favourably on China’s efforts to improve Saudi-Iranian relations and its attempt to promote a negotiated solution to the conflict in Ukraine, many now hope that Beijing will be able to continue its recent diplomatic spree and step in to the Sudan crisis.
That is not the case at the moment, however. China has no interest in intervening directly to pacify Sudan, at least until the dispute between armed units loyal to Sudan’s de facto ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo is confined to Sudanese territory.
03:10
‘This is a transitional period’: Who are the generals behind the Sudan conflict?
‘This is a transitional period’: Who are the generals behind the Sudan conflict?
Saudi Arabia and Iran’s strategic and economic importance weighed on China’s decision to mediate between them. Beijing has long-standing economic interests in Sudan, but bilateral trade and Chinese loans have steadily declined since the country’s partition in 2011 with the creation of South Sudan.
China would prefer to let the African Union try to solve the Sudanese conundrum, like it did last year with efforts that led to the signing of a peace deal to bring an end to the civil war in Ethiopia. However, the pan-African bloc and regional actors such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development have so far been unable to launch any concrete diplomatic action.
Instead, Saudi Arabia and the US have stepped into the fray and taken the initiative in negotiations. Their officials have met both sides and mediated in Jeddah to secure a seven-day truce between the warring factions that expires on Sunday.
China’s wait-and-see approach shields it from the cost of remaining entangled in an intractable emergency like that under way in Sudan. Despite Beijing’s recent diplomatic activism, the Chinese approach is still “hide your strength, bide your time”, late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s guiding foreign policy orientation. But, in doing so, Beijing risks ceding space to Washington in the region.
China has outcompeted the US and Europe as far as strategic penetration in Africa is concerned, especially through the Belt and Road Initiative, President Xi Jinping’s plan to boost connectivity throughout Eurasia and beyond. However, in the past few years, the European Union and the administration of US President Joe Biden have launched economic and financial schemes to regain lost positions in the continent.
02:28
China invests billions in Africa
China invests billions in Africa
Against this backdrop, Beijing and the West must share the objective of preventing a potentially tragic spillover of the armed confrontation in Sudan. The greater Horn of Africa is already unstable, marked by persistent poverty, ethnic and religious divides and conflicting historical claims. The region is also vulnerable to infiltration by Islamist extremist groups, such as Islamic State, al-Qaeda and their local branches.
A further deterioration of the situation, coupled with the ongoing Yemeni civil war on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, could endanger world trade, given that much of Europe’s sea commerce passes through this maritime choke point. It is worth noting that China was the largest source of EU imports in 2022 and the third-largest destination for EU exports, with combined trade worth more than €850 billion (US$918.5 billion).
Sino-Western diplomatic synergy on Sudan would strengthen the contractual power of the US and Saudi mediators engaged in the ongoing discussions or in any future talks to end the fighting and find a peaceful way forward for the Sudanese crisis.
People’s Liberation Army personnel attend the August 1, 2017 opening ceremony in Djibouti of China’s first overseas naval base. Photo: AFP
China is accusing Nato of having expansion plans in Asia. It is worth remembering, however, that as recently as 2016, warships from China and members of the transatlantic alliance were conducting joint anti-piracy drills in the Gulf of Aden as part of Operation Ocean Shield.
Furthermore, the EU’s anti-piracy force in the Arabian Sea has often praised China’s collaboration in the fight against piracy in Somali waters. The two naval task forces have jointly escorted the World Food Programme’s humanitarian convoys in the region and even trained together to improve interoperability, including through combined exercises at the Chinese support base in Djibouti, Beijing’s first overseas military facility.
For all the problems in relations between China and the West, from the trade and tech wars to Taiwan, the South China Sea, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and human rights, the Global South should not be a battleground for geopolitical influence. Instead, it should be a venue for collaboration among responsible powers that can only benefit world stability.
Emanuele Scimia is an independent journalist and foreign affairs analyst
