• briefing asia infrastructure aug 15, 2006 • briefing asia energy aug 15, 2006

cell phone industry.
Which industry segment still has something to learn about rapid versioning? "Network infrastructure," he says.
END SIDEBAR
SIDEBAR
Socialist ideology prevails
By Bill Roberts
Behind legal procedural issues in China are cultural and economic factors that work against robust IP rights protection. Ideologically and in practice, the public good still outweighs private property rights.
As recently as March 12, 2006, a front-page story in the New York Times reported how the Communist government was engaged in a renewed ideological debate over the public good versus private property rights. After lying dormant for a few years, the issue resurfaced because of the widening economic gap between the minority of Chinese who benefit from their nation's economic growth and the majority who do not. The debate forced the government to shelve—at least for now—a draft law, expected to win passage, that would have protected individual property rights.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers report, Redefining Intellectual Property Value: The Case of China, says recent Chinese government statements and draft antimonopoly laws emphasize the public good over private gain. The Chinese National Standards Administration has required licensing concessions from patent owners if their IP is to be included in approved national standards. Meanwhile, provincial and local governments have a great deal of economic autonomy, and—from a practical standpoint—the legal autonomy, to do what they deem necessary for the economic benefit of their citizens.
Given its economic development model—ultralean and ultra-agile manufacturing—China is focused on removing costs from production. Its success in doing that is the reason Western companies have shifted manufacturing to China. When it comes to making competitive products for the Chinese market, Western IP is prohibitively expensive. The China Daily newspaper estimated IP license fees are 20 to 30 percent of the production costs of Chinese DVD players, whereas they are 2 to 3 percent of the production costs of U.S. made DVDs. Chinese manufacturers see no benefit in paying license fees and royalties, especially when their margins are ultrathin.
The irony is that on the way to becoming the world's best lean manufacturer, China has driven down the profit margins of its own companies. This is exacerbated by socialist market policies in which large amounts of capital are often directed to manufacturing capacity for which there is no discernible market, according to the report.
In the first 11 months of 2005, China's top 100 electronics companies saw business volume grow 16 percent year to year, but gross profits fell 42 percent year to year, with a mere 1.93 percent average profit margin. With razor-thin margins, the last thing Chinese companies want to do is pay to license patents and know-how.
END SIDEBAR
Bill Roberts is an ELECTRONIC BUSINESS contributing writer.
Document EB00000020060503e2510000d
Asia-Pacific Report

BusinessBC

China looks attractive to some African regimes
Jonathan Manthorpe

Vancouver Sun

785 words

1 May 2006

Vancouver Sun

VNCS

Final

E3

English

Copyright © 2006 Vancouver Sun
President Hu Jintao has given visible expression to China's growing political and economic influence in Africa as he wound up a five-nation tour last week.
Hu's awkward reception in Washington was followed by smoothly orchestrated stops in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya, where the Chinese president's image as a powerful and effective world leader was buffed to a gleam.
Beijing sees Africa as a treasure trove of natural resources, and a market for low-end manufactured goods. The region can become a sphere of dominant Chinese influence if the right appeals are made to the prejudices and anxieties of African leaders.
So far, Beijing appears to have got the tone and content of its message right.
While Hu was in Kenya on Friday, the state-controlled China Offshore Oil Co. signed a 20-year deal with the Nairobi government to explore six blocks covering 115,343 square kilometres in the north and south of the country.
If oil is found, there will be a joint Kenya-China production agreement.
Two days before, Hu was in Nigeria to witness a $4-billion US deal for drilling licences in the West African country's oil-rich south.
In both cases the agreements were accompanied by fulsome aid packages, cheap loans, and the prospect of further Chinese investment. This bounty will not be accompanied by demands for good governance or human rights improvements -- the sorts of things that come with similar Western offers, and which African leaders find so irksome.
As Beijing's mouthpiece newspaper People's Daily said last week in a story outlining Hu's African visit: "Over the years, it is Western powers, not China, who practised cruel colonial rule in African countries and looted their resources like mad," the article commented.
It is on its historical support for anti-colonialism and liberation movements that Beijing is now building. Coupled with that is an almost religious dedication to non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states that has made Beijing's political and commercial envoys welcome in African capitals shunned by most of the rest of the world.
In the oil business alone, China already takes supplies from Angola, Sudan, Algeria and Chad. Chinese oil companies are working in Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. And to this list should now be added Nigeria and Kenya.
Among these countries, Angola exports about a quarter of its oil production to China, and China imports half of Sudan's oil output.
But the oil business is only the most attention-grabbing and strategic of China's links to Africa. There are close to 700 Chinese companies operating in Africa in fields such as mining, fishing, the forest industry, and telecommunications. And last year, China overtook Britain to become Africa's third most important trading partner after the U.S. and France.
One of China's attractions for some of Africa's most despotic leaders is that Beijing can use its veto powers in the UN Security Council to block international action against them. It is, for example, Beijing's solidarity with the Sudanese regime that has blocked effective international action to end the government-backed genocide in Darfur.
And some of Beijing's actions in Africa suggest a willingness to undermine global institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, that are held to be agents of U.S. policy. Late last year, Beijing extended a $2-billion US line of credit to the notoriously corrupt Angolan government, enabling it to avoid an IMF loan with administrative reform strings attached.
Attitudes toward this Chinese invasion of capital are less sanguine on Africa's streets than they are in the palaces.
Many ordinary Africans see their jobs disappearing as locally made products sink in a sea of imported Chinese goods. Many people in places like Zimbabwe say it reminds them of what life was like in the colonial era.
Even in the joyous atmosphere in Kenya last week, the local trade and industry minister commented sharply on the country's $440-million US trade deficit with China.
The number is similar in South Africa, where academic Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of president Thabo Mbeki, commented a few days ago: "We sell them raw materials and they sell us manufactured goods, with a predictable result."
[e-mail]
Colour Photo: Khalil Senosi, Associated Press / United Nations officers stand guard as Chinese President Hu Jintao plants a cussonia tree at the UN headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, last Friday. Hu said his government follows a policy of 'non-interference in others' affairs' as he finalized yet another oil deal in Africa.
Document VNCS000020060501e2510002o

REPEAT: Nigerian militants target fuel tankers with car bomb
590 words

1 May 2006

01:52 AM

Platts Commodity News

PLATT

English

Copyright 2006. Platts. All Rights Reserved.
(Repeating story from Sunday for Asian, European subscribers)
Nigerian separatist militants carried out a car bomb attack on fuel trucks in the Niger Delta on Saturday, they said, and again warned oil companies to evacuate staff from the restive region. The militants also issued a specific threat to Chinese oil workers, warning Beijing not to invest in the Nigerian oil industry. A spokesman for the Delta State government, Sunny Areh, confirmed the attack. He told AFP a Mercedes 190 car had been packed with explosives and that the blast had destroyed four nearby parked cars but caused no casualties. Brigadier General Alfred Ilogho, commander of a military task force deployed in the delta to counter the rebels, said that a car had exploded close to parked tanker lorries on the outskirts of the oil port of Warri. "There was an explosion of a car. There weren't any casualties. The place has been cordoned off by soldiers," he said, adding that the blast had happened after dark at a truck stop used by tanker drivers serving Warri's refinery.
A group known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which claimed a previous car bomb in Port Harcourt on April 20, said it had detonated 30 kg of dynamite using a cellphone as the trigger.
"Today at 2125 hours Nigerian time, our operatives in Delta State in the Niger Delta planted and detonated one car bomb amidst petroleum product bridging tankers located close to the refinery," an email statement said.
"This is the last warning to all oil industry workers.
This warning goes particularly to tanker drivers and all involved in the petroleum industry in one way or the other," the statement added.
Shortly before the explosion, the group had emailed the media to announce that an attack was about to take place. MEND has launched a violent campaign against the Nigerian military and the country's huge oil and gas industry to press its demands for the people of the delta to be given control over energy revenues from their region.
Since January, the group's attacks have left at least 24 members of the security forces dead and cut Nigeria's exports of 2.6 million b/d by around a quarter, forcing up world oil prices.
This week Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Abuja and met his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo to discuss, among other things, a greater role for Chinese firms in the delta oil industry.
MEND's statement specifically warned China not to come to their region. "We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta," it said.
"Chinese citizens found in oil installations will be treated as thieves. The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude places its citizens in our line of fire," it added. Chinese construction companies are already active in the delta, and the country's oil firms have begun to seek exploration contracts.
This month the offshore company CNOOC bought a $2.7 billion stake in a Nigerian field. Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil exporter, but little of the wealth generated by the industry has trickled down to the citizens of the delta's polluted fishing villages and overcrowded port cities.
Several heavily armed militant groups are competing to generate headlines with high profile attacks on the oil industry. They have demanded the release of jailed local leaders and for regional control of oil contracts.
Story
Document PLATT00020060502e2510002d

Bomb: Mend Claims Responsibility
by FUNKE ODUWOLE and NAPOLEON EHIREMEN with agency reports

1,182 words

1 May 2006

07:32 AM

All Africa

AFNWS

English

(c) 2006 AllAfrica, All Rights Reserved
Warri, May 01, 2006 (Daily Champion/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
IJAW militant group, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has claimed responsibility for weekend's bomb attack on Warri refinery.
The blast occurred Saturday night in a car parked inside the Petroleum Products Tankers Park close to the refinery but no casualty was reported.
MEND's claim is the second in 10 days as the group had claimed responsibility for the April 20, bomb explosion at an army barracks in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Reacting to the blast, Chief of Army Staff, (COAS), Lt. Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, said the military is ready to dialogue with militants on the issues at stake to enthrone lasting peace in the region.
The group, reports said, had e-mailed media houses before the explosion, announcing that the attack was going to take place.
Reiterating its demand for the region's control over oil, MEND said that it used a mobile phone to detonate 30kg of dynamite in the bombing.
It said the attack was a warning to all people working in the oil industry in Nigeria. It also made specific threats against China, which has just signed a major oil deal with Nigeria.
MEND said the bombing was a final warning to oil workers and future attacks would be directed against individuals.
"We have resolved to take our campaign out of the creeks (so) that every Nigerian may feel the true pains of the Niger Delta peoples," it said in an e-mail sent to the media.
It was referring to the mangrove-lined creeks of the Delta where many oil installations are located and where militant attacks, acts of sabotage and crude oil theft are frequent
"We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta ... The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude (oil) places its citizens in our line of fire," MEND said.
Earlier this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Nigeria and signed deals to explore Nigerian oilfields in return for a commitment to invest $4 billion in infrastructure to help develop Africa's most populous country.
MEND has staged a series of kidnappings and attacks against the oil sector in the world's eighth-biggest exporter that has forced companies to cut production by 550,000 barrels per day.
This has contributed to recent spikes in world oil prices, including last week's record high at over $75 per barrel.
The militants, who have abducted a total of 13 foreign oil workers this year and held some of them for several weeks, have warned all oil workers to leave the delta and vowed to halt exports completely. They have now freed all the hostages.
The use of car bombs is unusual in Nigeria but it was MEND's second such attack in nine days after a bombing close to an army barracks in Port Harcourt, a major city in a different part of the Niger Delta. That attack killed two civilians.
Soldiers guarded the site of the Warri explosion on Sunday and it was impossible to get close, but from a distance the blackened carcasses of five tanker trucks were visible.
The explosion, which was heard 4 km (2.5 miles) away, shattered the windows of the drivers' office 100 meters away and flung a chunk from one of the vehicles into the building where it crashed through a wall.
The Warri refinery has not been functioning for several months and the tanker trucks were empty at the time of the blast, apparently helping avoid a major fire.
A little-known group that first appeared in December, MEND is a coalition of militias which the government accuses of involvement in a lucrative trade in stolen crude oil.
But its demands - which also include the release of two jailed leaders from the region and compensation for oil spills - are shared by many activists in the area, where most people live in poverty despite the riches being pumped from their land.
In a related development, Gen Agwai, who waved the olive branch when he visited the Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili in Port Harcourt on Sunday, said that the offer should not be misconstrued as a mark of fear or intimidation.
He said that though the military was determined to contribute to the promotion of peace and security, it also remained committed to upholding its statutory role by doing everything to protect the interest, integrity and sovereignty of the nation.
Agwai commended the assistance given the army in the state by the Rivers State Government, following the recent bomb explosion in Port Harcourt and commended the collaboration between the army and other security agencies in the state in the wake of the unfortunate incident.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Alexander Ogomudia was yesterday told that the bomb blast that rocked the petroleum tanker drivers park in Warri on Saturday night may have been timed to start a series of explosions in the Niger Delta
General Ogomudia who was at the scene of the incident to carry out a first hand assesment of the blast was shown the deep crater created on the concrete floor of the park by police bombs disposal experts led by Superintendent of Police Mr. Job Olorijolu who led six others for a preliminary investigation of the incident.
Daily Champion gathered that over 200 trucks were at the park when the explosion occurred. The bomb was placed inside a Mercedes Benz 190 Saloon car metallic blue colour which was torn to shreads by the explosion.
The bomb which was suspected to have been timed to create several explosions among the oil tankers which were tightly parked together, failed as all they were yet to load as at the time of the incident as it was weekend, and no loading of products took place. Only eight of the trucks were badly damage.
We gathered that the devastation of the explosion would have affected the David Ejoor Barracks of the 93 Battalion of the Nigerian Army which also serves as Headquarters of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger Delta, also know as Operation Restore Hope.
When General Ogomudia who was accompanied by the Commander of the JTF, Brig. Gen. Alfred Ilogho, the Commanding Officer of the Warri Naval Base, NNS Delta, Navy Captain Mufutau Ajibade and the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom was surprised that there was no internal security arrangement for safeguarding property at the park by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
He was however told by the chairman of NUPENG, Petrol Tankers' Division (PTD), Mr. Matthias Ote that the unit made up of drivers are in no financial position to undertake the huge financial burden of erecting a perimeter fence for the park.
He said that they have been appealing to the Delta State Government, which donated the park to the union, to help built a fence around the park.
Document AFNWS00020060501e251000bt

A Section

Militants Warn China Over Oil in Niger Delta

Craig Timberg

Washington Post Foreign Service

416 words

1 May 2006

The Washington Post

WP

FINAL

A15

English

Copyright 2006, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved
Militants in Nigeria's volatile oil-producing region detonated a car bomb late Saturday and issued a warning that investors and officials from China would be "treated as thieves" and targeted in future attacks.
The threat came as Chinese President Hu Jintao returned home from a week-long tour of Africa in which he reached a series of deals securing access to oil and other resources to meet the needs of China's booming economy. On Wednesday, Hu and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo signed several major business deals, including one that offers China four oil exploration licenses, the Associated Press reported.
A spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in an e-mail sent to news organizations that the car-bomb attack was "the final warning" before the militants turned their attention to oil workers, storage facilities, bridges, offices and other "soft oil industry targets."
In a second e-mail, the spokesman, who uses the pseudonym Jomo Gbomo, specifically criticized the Chinese, who last year took a $2.2 billion stake in an oil field in the Niger Delta. Nigeria is a major oil exporter and the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the United States.
"We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta," Gbomo wrote. "Chinese citizens found in oil installations will be treated as thieves. The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude places its citizens in our line of fire."
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has asserted responsibility for other violence in the region, including attacks on oil facilities and the kidnapping this year of several foreign-born oil workers, all of whom have been released unharmed.
Gbomo said in the e-mail that the explosion Saturday night, which took place in the southern Nigerian city of Warri, was activated by a cellphone. Details remained sketchy, although no deaths were immediately reported. A car bombing on April 19 for which the group asserted responsibility killed two people.
The Niger Delta has been a source of political and ethnic unrest for decades. Most residents of the vast region, much of which is reachable only by boats that traverse networks on mangrove swamps, live in intense poverty, while oil facilities in the area earn billions of dollars for foreign companies and the Nigerian government.
WP20060501NIGERIA1
Document WP00000020060501e2510002v

DJ Nigeria Militants Warn Chinese Govt, Oil Cos: Stay Away
433 words

30 April 2006

10:40 PM

Dow Jones Chinese Financial Wire

DJCFWE

English

Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
LAGOS (Dow Jones)--Niger Delta militants fighting for control of oil resources Saturday warned the Chinese government and oil companies to stay away from the Niger Delta region.
'We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta. Chinese citizens found in oil installations will be treated as thieves,' the militants said in an e-mail sent to Dow Jones Newswires.
The warning came two days after Chinese President Hu Jintao ended a state visit to Nigeria, during which the two countries signed a number of bilateral agreements, including those on oil and gas.
The bilateral agreements reaffirmed the grant by Nigeria of four oil blocks to China - two located in the Niger Delta and two in the Chad Basin.
But the militants warned by investing in the oil industry, the Chinese government would be aiding the Nigerian government, which it accuses of 'stealing' the resources belonging to the people of the Niger Delta.
'The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude places its citizens in our line of fire,' the militants warned in the e-mail, signed by Jomo Gbomo, a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
In the e-mail, the militants cited a bomb attack allegedly carried out by them Saturday on some tankers taking gasoline from the Warri Refinery.
They said the car bomb was activated by cellular phone utilizing 30 kilograms of dynamite. There were no reports of casualties yet. The attack came about a week after a similar one at a military base in Port Harcourt, also in the Niger Delta, in which three people reportedly died.
'We have resolved to take our campaign out of the creeks that every Nigerian may feel the true pains of the Niger Delta peoples,' the militants said in their statement.
Attacks by the militants have cut about a fifth of Nigeria's crude production, following shut-ins by companies in the areas affected by the attacks.
Militants have kidnapped and later released foreign oil workers, and blown up oil installations, including flowstations and oil and gas pipelines.
The militants have warned oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to leave or risk being attacked.
'For the errant oil companies that still choose to remain and operate in our lands and waters, we shall come like a thief in the night,' the militants warned in an e-mail last week. -By Vincent Nwanma, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]
-0-
Document DJCFWE0020060501e25100105
NEWS

China's new push on the African continent

Pallavi Aiyar

1,507 words

1 May 2006

The Hindu

THINDU

11

English

(c) 2006 Kasturi & Sons Ltd
Beijing is making a concerted effort to expand its economic and diplomatic clout.
CHINESE PRESIDENT Hu Jintao's three-nation Africa tour to Morocco, Nigeria, and Kenya might have received only a sliver of the international limelight his much-heralded visit to the United States generated a week earlier, but in China itself the trip is seen as having considerable strategic weight.
Since the turn of the century when Beijing established the Sino-African Cooperation Forum, China has been making a concerted effort to expand its economic and diplomatic clout with the raw material rich continent. By combining handouts of billions of dollars in aid and investment with judicious rhetoric that alludes to the spirit of Bandung, Beijing is clearly looking to challenge U.S. leadership in the region. It is within this context that Mr. Hu's recent travels should be viewed.
As he stopped off across Africa last week, Mr. Hu stressed that Beijing wants a "strategic partnership" with Africa, seeking to add a new political dimension to the already blossoming bilateral economic romance. Speaking to Nigeria's Parliament, the Chinese President put forward a five-point proposal for developing ties in the areas of politics, the economy, culture, security, and international affairs.
According to reports in the African media, local analysts say Mr. Hu's stress on the "independence and sovereignty" of Africa is seen to offer an attractive alternative to the U.S.' interventionist and prescriptive foreign policy with its one-dimensional focus on the "war against terror."
Signalling the importance it gives to evolving a coherent Africa policy, Beijing brought out its first ever White Paper on Africa in January this year. It states that if African countries choose to accept the "one China principle as the political foundation for the establishment and development of China's relations with African countries," China will "co-ordinate positions on major international and regional issues and stand for mutual support on major issues concerning state sovereignty, territorial integrity, national dignity and human rights."
Given the economic benefits that trade and investment with China spell combined with the diplomatic weight of Beijing's permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, it is small wonder that more and more African countries are in fact choosing to ditch ties with Taiwan and recognise Beijing's claim to sovereignty over the island. Thus while in the early 1990s there were still more than 20 African countries that recognised Taiwan, now there are only six.
In October last year, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing attended the official opening of the Chinese embassy in Senegal, which had been closed after it recognised Taiwan in 1996. Following Senegal breaking off relations with Taiwan, Mr. Li announced debt cancellation worth $18.5 million, with $3.7 million for the construction of hospitals, roads, and other infrastructure. Liberia, another country to ditch Taiwan in 2003, received $25 million for reconstruction and the offer of a $5 million interest-free loan.
Bilateral trade between Africa and China surged to almost $40 billion in 2005 from $10 billion at the turn of the century, according to official Chinese statistics. Africa enjoyed a trade surplus of $2.38 billion. By the end of last year, some 750 Chinese enterprises had invested a total of $1.25 billion in the continent.
From Senegal to Ethiopia, China's "good-will" gifts and cheap products are proving a hit with both the people and their politicians. According to reports in African media, even in the fabled trading town of Timbuktu, the moped of choice for young men is the Chinese "Jin-Cheng."
Mr. Hu has been stressing the "complementarities" of the Chinese and African economies that promise much scope for the "win-win" situations so often touted by Chinese leaders.
In this case, however, there appears to be much truth underlying the diplomatic-speak. Africa provides rich pickings — particularly oil — for raw material hungry China while the Chinese can offer the expertise and investments much needed by African nations to develop infrastructure and kick-start industry.
Africa's Gulf of Guinea coastline has in particular attracted China's attention given that it is one of the world's oil exploration hotspots. With an economy that has been growing at around 10 per cent for years on the trot, China has emerged as the second largest oil importer after the U.S. Wooing Africa, even those countries shunned by the West such as Sudan, is thus a priority.
So far Beijing's Africa strategy has met with considerable success. During Mr. Hu's Nigeria's visit for example, China was awarded preferential rights in bidding for four oil-drilling licences in exchange for $4 billion in infrastructure investments, anti-malaria drugs, and training for health officials. A few days before the President's trip, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) finalised a payment for $2.7 billion for a 45 per cent stake in an oil block in Nigeria that is due to start producing in 2008.
This is not the first time China has sought oil in exchange for investment or aid as India has learnt by experience. In 2004, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's bid to purchase a block auctioned by Shell in Angola was topped by the Chinese, who used a $2 billion aid package to convince the Angolan Government at the last moment, to go with China instead. China also struck a deal with Gabon to buy oil in 2004 and in 2005 Nigeria agreed to provide 30,000 barrels of oil a day to PetroChina in an $800 million deal.
The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is the largest investor in the Sudanese oil industry. The decision of the U.S. Government to cut ties with Sudan in the mid-1990s pressured Western oil companies to withdraw and opened new opportunities for Chinese investment.
CNPC, in a joint venture with the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company has invested over $8 billion in Sudan, including the 1,500 km pipeline to transport oil to the Marsa al-Bashair harbour terminal near the Port of Sudan. By 2005, China was purchasing between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of Sudan's crude production. In total, Africa accounts for about 28 per cent of China's total oil imports.
But beyond petroleum Chinese state companies have invested in African mines, fishing, and telecommunications. Over 60 per cent of Gabon's and a large part of Equatorial Guinea's timber production is purchased by China. China, the world's largest consumer of copper, has invested $170 million in the Zambian copper mining sector. The Chambezi copper mine, which was purchased in 1999, is now its largest mining operation in Africa. China is increasingly involved in the Democratic Republic of Congo, investing in cobalt and copper mines as well.
Although resource extraction is the centrepiece of China's new Africa push, non-resource based investments have not been ignored. In Ethiopia, China is involved in telecommunications, in Ghana in dam construction, and in Kenya in road building. It is even helping Nigeria to launch its first space satellite. China has also constructed a new Foreign Affairs Ministry building in Uganda and Djibouti and built a sports stadium in Mali that enabled the country to host the African Nation's Cup football tournament.
In the cultural sphere, China recently started up a Confucius Institute to promote the study of Chinese language and culture in Nairobi and designated eight African countries as official tourist destinations to encourage Chinese tourism in the region. The Chinese government's African Human Resources Development Fund pays for 10,000 Africans to be trained in Beijing.
Finally, China is also increasingly getting involved in peacekeeping operations across the continent. In 2004 the mainland contributed more than 1,500 troops to the U.N. presence in Africa.
All across Africa Chinese state-owned companies are outbidding Western contractors on infrastructure projects while Beijing provides soft loans and aid as a means to increase its competitive advantage in acquiring natural resource assets. Moreover, its policy of non-involvement in the domestic politics of African countries makes China an attractive partner for those nations marginalised by the Western powers.
Beijing's commitment to Africa has been backed up by a succession of high-level visits to the continent. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing kicked off 2006 by a tour of African countries including Cape Verde, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, and Libya. In 2004, Mr. Hu visited Egypt, Gabon, and Algeria.
China's aggressive African safari certainly has traditional Western powers with stakes in Africa such as the U.K., France, and the U.S. sitting up and taking notice. But India too, would do well to pay some attention. Mr. Hu is the second Chinese President to visit Nigeria in about four years. The last Indian Prime Minister to have paid an official visit to Nigeria, the most populous African country, was Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962.
Document THINDU0020060430e2510005x

Nigerian militants target fuel tankers with car bomb
581 words

30 April 2006

02:26 AM

Platts Commodity News

PLATT

English

Copyright 2006. Platts. All Rights Reserved.
Nigerian separatist militants carried out a car bomb attack on fuel trucks in the Niger Delta on Saturday, they said, and again warned oil companies to evacuate staff from the restive region. The militants also issued a specific threat to Chinese oil workers, warning Beijing not to invest in the Nigerian oil industry. A spokesman for the Delta State government, Sunny Areh, confirmed the attack. He told AFP a Mercedes 190 car had been packed with explosives and that the blast had destroyed four nearby parked cars but caused no casualties. Brigadier General Alfred Ilogho, commander of a military task force deployed in the delta to counter the rebels, said that a car had exploded close to parked tanker lorries on the outskirts of the oil port of Warri. "There was an explosion of a car. There weren't any casualties. The place has been cordoned off by soldiers," he said, adding that the blast had happened after dark at a truck stop used by tanker drivers serving Warri's refinery.
A group known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which claimed a previous car bomb in Port Harcourt on April 20, said it had detonated 30 kg of dynamite using a cellphone as the trigger.
"Today at 2125 hours Nigerian time, our operatives in Delta State in the Niger Delta planted and detonated one car bomb amidst petroleum product bridging tankers located close to the refinery," an email statement said.
"This is the last warning to all oil industry workers.
This warning goes particularly to tanker drivers and all involved in the petroleum industry in one way or the other," the statement added.
Shortly before the explosion, the group had emailed the media to announce that an attack was about to take place. MEND has launched a violent campaign against the Nigerian military and the country's huge oil and gas industry to press its demands for the people of the delta to be given control over energy revenues from their region.
Since January, the group's attacks have left at least 24 members of the security forces dead and cut Nigeria's exports of 2.6 million b/d by around a quarter, forcing up world oil prices.
This week Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Abuja and met his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo to discuss, among other things, a greater role for Chinese firms in the delta oil industry.
MEND's statement specifically warned China not to come to their region. "We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta," it said.
"Chinese citizens found in oil installations will be treated as thieves. The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude places its citizens in our line of fire," it added. Chinese construction companies are already active in the delta, and the country's oil firms have begun to seek exploration contracts.
This month the offshore company CNOOC bought a $2.7 billion stake in a Nigerian field. Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil exporter, but little of the wealth generated by the industry has trickled down to the citizens of the delta's polluted fishing villages and overcrowded port cities.
Several heavily armed militant groups are competing to generate headlines with high profile attacks on the oil industry. They have demanded the release of jailed local leaders and for regional control of oil contracts.
Story
Document PLATT00020060501e24u0000c

DJ Nigeria Militants Warn Chinese Govt, Oil Cos: Stay Away
450 words

30 April 2006

04:36 PM

Dow Jones Commodities Service

OSTDJ

English

Copyright 2006, Comtex News Network. All Rights Reserved.
LAGOS, Apr 30, 2006 (DJCS via Comtex) --
(This article was first published Saturday.)
Niger Delta militants fighting for control of oil resources Saturday warned the Chinese government and oil companies to stay away from the Niger Delta region.
"We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta. Chinese citizens found in oil installations will be treated as thieves," the militants said in an e-mail sent to Dow Jones Newswires.
The warning came two days after Chinese President Hu Jintao ended a state visit to Nigeria, during which the two countries signed a number of bilateral agreements, including those on oil and gas.
The bilateral agreements reaffirmed the grant by Nigeria of four oil blocks to China - two located in the Niger Delta and two in the Chad Basin.
But the militants warned by investing in the oil industry, the Chinese government would be aiding the Nigerian government, which it accuses of "stealing" the resources belonging to the people of the Niger Delta.
"The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude places its citizens in our line of fire," the militants warned in the e-mail, signed by Jomo Gbomo, a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
In the e-mail, the militants cited a bomb attack allegedly carried out by them Saturday on some tankers taking gasoline from the Warri Refinery.
They said the car bomb was activated by cellular phone utilizing 30 kilograms of dynamite. There were no reports of casualties yet. The attack came about a week after a similar one at a military base in Port Harcourt, also in the Niger Delta, in which three people reportedly died.
"We have resolved to take our campaign out of the creeks that every Nigerian may feel the true pains of the Niger Delta peoples," the militants said in their statement.
Attacks by the militants have cut about a fifth of Nigeria's crude production, following shut-ins by companies in the areas affected by the attacks.
Militants have kidnapped and later released foreign oil workers, and blown up oil installations, including flowstations and oil and gas pipelines.
The militants have warned oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to leave or risk being attacked.
"For the errant oil companies that still choose to remain and operate in our lands and waters, we shall come like a thief in the night," the militants warned in an e-mail last week.
-By Vincent Nwanma, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-30-06 2036ET
Document OSTDJ00020060501e24u0002u

UPDATE 1-Nigeria bomb destroys 5 oil trucks, no casualties
By Segun Owen

687 words

30 April 2006

03:24 AM

Reuters News

LBA

English

(c) 2006 Reuters Limited
(Adds army spokesman, paragraph 2)
WARRI, Nigeria, April 30 (Reuters) - A car bombing in the Nigerian oil city of Warri, claimed by militants whose attacks have cut oil exports by a quarter, destroyed at least five tanker trucks, a Reuters witness said on Sunday.
An army spokesman in Warri said there were no casualties.
The blast late on Saturday night in a truck park close to a refinery sent debris flying 100 metres away. Drivers at the park on Sunday said the area would have been deserted the night before.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which demands more local control over the southern delta's oil wealth, said it had used a mobile phone to detonate 30 kg (66 lb) of dynamite in the bombing.
It said the attack was a warning to all people working in the oil industry in Nigeria. It also made specific threats against China, which has just signed a major oil deal with Africa's top oil producer.
MEND said the bombing was a final warning to oil workers and future attacks would be directed against individuals.
"We have resolved to take our campaign out of the creeks (so) that every Nigerian may feel the true pains of the Niger Delta peoples," it said in an e-mail sent to the media.
It was referring to the mangrove-lined creeks of the delta where many oil installations are located and where militant attacks, acts of sabotage and crude oil theft are frequent.
"We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta ... The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude (oil) places its citizens in our line of fire," MEND said.
Earlier this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Nigeria and signed deals to explore Nigerian oilfields in return for a commitment to invest $4 billion in infrastructure to help develop Africa's most populous country.
TRUCK CARCASSES
MEND has staged a series of kidnappings and attacks against the oil sector in the world's eighth-biggest exporter that has forced companies to cut production by 550,000 barrels per day.
This has contributed to recent spikes in world oil prices, including last week's record high at over $75 per barrel.
The militants, who have abducted a total of 13 foreign oil workers this year and held some of them for several weeks, have warned all oil workers to leave the delta and vowed to halt exports completely. They have now freed all the hostages.
The use of car bombs is unusual in Nigeria but it was MEND's second such attack in nine days after a bombing close to an army barracks in Port Harcourt, a major city in a different part of the Niger Delta. That attack killed two civilians.
Soldiers guarded the site of the Warri explosion on Sunday and it was impossible to get close, but from a distance the blackened carcasses of five tanker trucks were visible.
The explosion, which was heard 4 km (2.5 miles) away, shattered the windows of the drivers' office 100 metres away and flung a chunk from one of the vehicles into the building where it crashed through a wall.
The Warri refinery has not been functioning for several months and the tanker trucks were empty at the time of the blast, apparently helping avoid a major fire.
A little-known group that first appeared in December, MEND is a coalition of militias which the government accuses of involvement in a lucrative trade in stolen crude oil.
But its demands -- which also include the release of two jailed leaders from the region and compensation for oil spills -- are shared by many activists in the area, where most people live in poverty despite the riches being pumped from their land.
NIGERIA-ATTACK (UPDATE 1)|LANGEN|AFA|CSA|LBY|RWSA|RWS|REULB|GNS|G|RBN|ABN|C|D|E|M|O|U|MTL|GRO|SOF|OIL|AFN|Z|RNA|RNP|DNP|SXNA
Document LBA0000020060430e24u0003h

DJ Nigeria Militants Warn Chinese Govt,Oil Cos: Stay Away -2
377 words

29 April 2006

03:30 PM

Dow Jones Commodities Service

OSTDJ

English

Copyright 2006, Comtex News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Apr 29, 2006 (DJCS via Comtex) --
The warning came two days after Chinese President Hu Jintao ended a state visit to Nigeria, during which the two countries signed a number of bilateral agreements, including those on oil and gas.
The bilateral agreements reaffirmed the grant by Nigeria of four oil blocks to China - two located in the Niger Delta and two in the Chad Basin.
But the militants warned by investing in the oil industry, the Chinese government would be aiding the Nigerian government, which it accuses of "stealing" the resources belonging to the people of the Niger Delta.
"The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude places its citizens in our line of fire," the militants warned in the e-mail, signed by Jomo Gbomo, a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
In the e-mail, the militants cited a bomb attack allegedly carried out by them Saturday on some tankers taking gasoline from the Warri Refinery.
They said the car bomb was activated by cellular phone utilizing 30 kilograms of dynamite. There were no reports of casualties yet. The attack came about a week after a similar one at a military base in Port Harcourt, also in the Niger Delta, in which three people reportedly died.
"We have resolved to take our campaign out of the creeks that every Nigerian may feel the true pains of the Niger Delta peoples," the militants said in their statement.
Attacks by the militants have cut about a fifth of Nigeria's crude production, following shut-ins by companies in the areas affected by the attacks.
Militants have kidnapped and later released foreign oil workers, and blown up oil installations, including flowstations and oil and gas pipelines.
The militants have warned oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to leave or risk being attacked.
"For the errant oil companies that still choose to remain and operate in our lands and waters, we shall come like a thief in the night," the militants warned in an e-mail last week.
-By Vincent Nwanma, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-29-06 1930ET
Document OSTDJ00020060430e24t00001

Nigerian militants target fuel tankers with car bomb
DC

589 words

29 April 2006

07:10 PM

Agence France Presse

AFPR

English

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006 All reproduction and presentation rights reserved.
LAGOS, April 30, 2006 (AFP) -
Nigerian separatist militants carried out a car bomb attack on fuel trucks in the Niger Delta on Saturday, they said, and again warned oil companies to evacuate staff from the restive region.
The militants also issued a specific threat to Chinese oil workers, warning Beijing not to invest in the Nigerian oil industry.
A spokesman for the Delta State government, Sunny Areh, confirmed the attack. He told AFP a Mercedes 190 car had been packed with explosives and that the blast had destroyed four nearby parked cars but caused no casualties.
Brigadier General Alfred Ilogho, commander of a military task force deployed in the delta to counter the rebels, said that a car had exploded close to parked tanker lorries on the outskirts of the oil port of Warri.
"There was an explosion of a car. There weren't any casualties. The place has been cordoned off by soldiers," he said, adding that the blast had happened after dark at a truck stop used by tanker drivers serving Warri's refinery.
A group known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which claimed a previous car bomb in Port Harcourt on April 20, said it had detonated 30 kilogrammes of dynamite using a cellphone as triggers.
"Today at 2125 hours Nigerian time, our operatives in Delta State in the Niger Delta planted and detonated one car bomb amidst petroleum product bridging tankers located close to the refinery," an email statement said.
"This is the last warning to all oil industry workers. This warning goes particularly to tanker drivers and all involved in the petroleum industry in one way or the other," the statement added.
Shortly before the explosion, the group had emailed the media to announce that an attack was about to take place.
MEND has launched a violent campaign against the Nigerian military and the country's huge oil and gas industry to press its demands for the people of the delta to be given control over energy revenues from their region.
Since January, the group's attacks have left at least 24 members of the security forces dead and cut Nigeria's exports of 2.6-million-barrels per day by around a quarter, forcing up world oil prices.
This week Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Abuja and met his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo to discuss, among other things, a greater role for Chinese firms in the delta oil industry.
MEND's statement specifically warned China not to come to their region.
"We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta," it said.
"Chinese citizens found in oil installations will be treated as thieves. The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude places its citizens in our line of fire," it added.
Chinese construction companies are already active in the delta, and the country's oil firms have begun to seek exploration contracts. This month the offshore company CNOOC bought a 2.7 billion dollar stake in a Nigerian field.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil exporter, but little of the wealth generated by the industry has trickled down to the citizens of the delta's polluted fishing villages and overcrowded port cities.
Several heavily armed militant groups are competing to generate headlines with high profile attacks on the oil industry. They have demanded the release of jailed local leaders and for regional control of oil contracts.
dc/jmy
Document AFPR000020060429e24t008vh

Nigeria Militants Warn Chinese Govt, Oil Cos: Stay Away
439 words

29 April 2006

05:32 PM

Dow Jones International News

DJI

English

(c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
LAGOS (Dow Jones)--Niger Delta militants fighting for control of oil resources Saturday warned the Chinese government and oil companies to stay away from the Niger Delta region.
"We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta. Chinese citizens found in oil installations will be treated as thieves," the militants said in an e-mail sent to Dow Jones Newswires. [ 29-04-06 2132GMT ]
The warning came two days after Chinese President Hu Jintao ended a state visit to Nigeria, during which the two countries signed a number of bilateral agreements, including those on oil and gas.
The bilateral agreements reaffirmed the grant by Nigeria of four oil blocks to China - two located in the Niger Delta and two in the Chad Basin.
But the militants warned by investing in the oil industry, the Chinese government would be aiding the Nigerian government, which it accuses of "stealing" the resources belonging to the people of the Niger Delta.
"The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude places its citizens in our line of fire," the militants warned in the e-mail, signed by Jomo Gbomo, a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
In the e-mail, the militants cited a bomb attack allegedly carried out by them Saturday on some tankers taking gasoline from the Warri Refinery.
They said the car bomb was activated by cellular phone utilizing 30 kilograms of dynamite. There were no reports of casualties yet. The attack came about a week after a similar one at a military base in Port Harcourt, also in the Niger Delta, in which three people reportedly died.
"We have resolved to take our campaign out of the creeks that every Nigerian may feel the true pains of the Niger Delta peoples," the militants said in their statement.
Attacks by the militants have cut about a fifth of Nigeria's crude production, following shut-ins by companies in the areas affected by the attacks.
Militants have kidnapped and later released foreign oil workers, and blown up oil installations, including flowstations and oil and gas pipelines.
The militants have warned oil companies operating in the Niger Delta to leave or risk being attacked.
"For the errant oil companies that still choose to remain and operate in our lands and waters, we shall come like a thief in the night," the militants warned in an e-mail last week.
-By Vincent Nwanma, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail] [ 29-04-06 2330GMT ]
Document DJI0000020060429e24t00041

UPDATE 3-Nigeria militants say explode car bomb in oil delta
By Segun Owen

665 words

29 April 2006

05:19 PM

Reuters News

LBA

English

(c) 2006 Reuters Limited
(Adds new details and background, previous ABUJA)
WARRI, Nigeria, April 29 (Reuters) - Nigerian militants said on Saturday they had detonated a car bomb near a refinery in Warri in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta, extending a campaign of attacks that has cut Nigerian exports by a quarter.
No information was immediately available on whether there were any casualties or damage.
A Reuters reporter in Warri who was 4 km (2.5 miles) away from the refinery heard an explosion at the time when the militants said they detonated the bomb. A spokesman for Delta state said there had been a blast but had no further details.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which demands more local control over the region's oil wealth, said the bombing was a warning to all people working in OPEC member Nigeria's oil industry, and particularly to China.
"We wish to warn the Chinese government and its oil companies to steer well clear of the Niger Delta ... The Chinese government by investing in stolen crude (oil) places its citizens in our line of fire," said MEND.
Earlier this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Nigeria and signed deals to explore Nigerian oilfields in return for a commitment to invest $4 billion in infrastructure to help develop Africa's most populous country.
MEND has staged a series of kidnappings and attacks against the oil industry in the world's eighth-biggest exporter that has forced companies to cut production by 550,000 barrels per day.
This has contributed to recent spikes in world oil prices, including last week's record high at over $75 per barrel.
The militants, who have abducted a total of 13 foreign oil workers this year and held some of them for several weeks, have warned all oil workers to leave the delta and vowed to halt exports completely. They have now freed all the hostages.
30 KG OF DYNAMITE
MEND said it used a mobile phone to detonate 30 kg (66 lb) of dynamite in the bombing. The use of car bombs is unusual in Nigeria, but it was MEND's second such attack in nine days.
"Our operatives in Delta state in the Niger Delta planted and detonated one car bomb amidst petroleum product bridging tankers located close to the refinery in Warri," it said.
The militants have provided accurate details of their attacks in the past.
The Warri refinery has not been functioning for several months and no information was immediately available on whether any petroleum products were on site at the time of the blast.
It was not possible to get close to the area on Saturday night as Warri, a volatile city with a history of inter-ethnic violence, is under a near-curfew and it is dangerous to move around the city late at night.
MEND said Saturday's blast was similar to another car bomb attack they staged in Port Harcourt, another major city in the Niger Delta, on April 20. That bombing, close to an army barracks, killed two people.
A little-known group that first appeared in December, MEND is a coalition of militias which the government accuses of involvement in a lucrative trade in stolen crude oil.
But its demands -- which also include the release of two jailed leaders from the region and compensation for oil spills -- are shared by many activists in the area, where most people live in poverty despite the riches being pumped from their land.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has tried to address some of the grievances by promising to build a $1.8 billion highway across the delta, a region almost the size of England, and create 20,000 jobs. But MEND rejected the initiative.
NIGERIA-ATTACK (UPDATE 3, PICTURE)|LANGEN|AFA|CSA|LBY|RWSA|RWS|REULB|GNS|G|RBN|AFN|ABN|O|OIL|Z|RNP|DNP|PGE|PEN|SXNA
Document LBA0000020060429e24t000h1

New partnership needed in new era
699 words

28 April 2006

Industry Updates

BDU

English

Copyright 2006 China Daily Information Company. All Rights Reserved.
Visiting President Hu Jintao yesterday called for more innovative efforts to intensify partnership with Africa after China and Nigeria signed a slew of agreements, including one awarding China four oil-drilling licences in the African country.
Hu said the partnership should cover politics, the economy, security and international affairs; and reiterated that China's growth is "not a threat" to others.
"On the contrary, it will bring more development opportunities to the world."
Addressing a joint session of Nigeria's National Assembly, Hu said: "China will continue to work with Africa to widen China-Africa co-operation and inject new vitality into it."
Hu made the remarks on the second day of a two-day visit to the most populous country in the African continent at the invitation of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Describing African nations as "good friends, good partners and good brothers" of China, Hu said more efforts are needed to build "a new type of strategic partnership in the new era."
He proposed to boost mutual trust in politics through high-level exchanges, expand win-win partnerships with increased investment and security co-operation as well as co-ordination in international affairs.
"China and Africa enjoy great complementarities in their economies," he said. "The co-operation based on mutual benefit suits the interests of both sides."
The rich resources in Africa match China's need for raw materials for sustained economic growth while African countries want to accumulate capital by developing the resources and strengthen the local economies.
Trade between China and African countries is estimated to be US$40 billion last year, according to Foreign Ministry statistics. Some 750 Chinese enterprises have invested a total of US$1 billion in the continent.
Hu said a joint declaration laying out specific measures to intensify Sino-African co-operation would be issued at the China-Africa Co-operation Forum summit to be held in Beijing in November.
Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Edmund Daukoru said yesterday that the Sino-Nigerian agreement "is a formalization of the four oil block contracts, which include the maintenance and management of the Kaduna refinery and setting up a power generation station."
In exchange, China will grant Nigeria 40 million yuan (US$5 million) for infrastructure construction and 5 million yuan (US$624,000) for anti-malaria drugs, training for Nigerians to control malaria and bird flu, and co-operation in technology, according to other agreements signed the same day.
Last week, China's top offshore oil and gas producer, China National Offshore Oil Corp Ltd, completed a deal to buy a stake in a Nigerian oil-mining licence its biggest overseas acquisition.
"The main purpose of my visit is to deepen the Chinese-Nigerian relationship and strengthen the partnership both politically and economically," Hu said at the signing ceremony with Obasanjo.
Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and the world's sixth-biggest exporter.
During talks between the two leaders before the signing, Hu proposed to expand partnerships in areas such as agriculture, energy, electricity, infrastructure construction, telecommunications and satellite technology.
Obasanjo said Nigeria welcomes more investments from China; and spoke highly of Beijing's policy of establishing industry in his country rather than the wholesale export of finished products.
Analysts said the oil deal was a good fit for both countries.
"China is an emerging world economy; she needs oil," former Nigerian foreign minister Bolaji Akinyemi said. "Nigeria needs as much investment as possible and to diversify the sources of its income."
Sino-Nigerian trade volume was US$2.83 billion last year, up 29.6 percent from 2004, according to Foreign Ministry statistics.
China also has major investments in Nigeria's fast-growing telecoms industry and has found a ready market for textiles and other finished goods.
"Stronger ties between China and Nigeria are long overdue," said Wang Yusheng, former Chinese ambassador to Nigeria. "Many Chinese do business there and contribute a lot to the regional development."
Hu is scheduled to arrive in Kenya today on a state visit, the last stop of his five-nation tour, which has also taken him to the United States, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
Document BDU0000020060429e24s0001f

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