China Program’s Africa-US-China Trilateral Cooperation Timeline

This page serves as a timeline of the Carter Center China Program’s involvement in Africa-US-China trilateral cooperation from 2015 to 2019.

March 5-6, 2015 1st Africa-China-US Consultation for Peace and Development was held at The Carter Center with a focus on China-US cooperation in Sudan and South Sudan.

January 13-14, 2016 2nd Africa-China-US Consultation for Peace and Development was held at The Carter Center. In addition to Ambassadors Zhong and Lyman, Ambassador Mohamed Chambas, UN Secretary General Special Envoy to Africa participated in the consultation via telephone from New York. A list of 36 recommendations on trilateral cooperation was developed at this consultation. Per suggestion from Ambassador Chambas, the Consultation began to look at the prospect of trilateral cooperation on anti-piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

July 26, 2016 3rd Africa-China-US Consultation for Peace and Consultation was held in Lomé, Togo. The Foreign Ministry of the Togo government sponsored the meeting. The meeting focused on maritime security in West Africa.

November 17-18, 2016 Following the meeting held in Lomé, a technical workshop on trilateral cooperation on maritime security was held in Beijing. For the first time, military representatives from Africa, China and the US all attended the meeting.

March 2017 An article entitled “Where Beijing, Washington, and African Governments Can Work Together: From Competition to Cooperation” was published online by Foreign Affairs. The article was coauthored by Ambassadors Princeton Lyman, Zhong Jianhua, Mohamed Chambas and Dr. John Goodman.

The Shanghai Institute of International Studies and The Carter Center jointly organized a workshop on possible trilateral cooperation in public health capacity building in Shanghai.

The China Institute for Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) jointly organized a conference on trilateral cooperation peace and security in Beijing.

April 11, 2017 A one-day conference called “Can China and the US Find Common Ground in Africa? How 3-Way Cooperation Might Stem Violent Extremism, Maritime Attacks, and Famine” was co-organized by USIP and The Carter Center in Washington, DC.

August 2017 An article entitled “Solid Foundations for a New Partnership: How China and the United States Can Collaborate with Africa to Eradicate Malaria” was published online by the Centre for Chinese Studies, Stellenbosch, South Africa. The article was coauthored by Dr. Yawei Liu and William Pierce.

October 16-21, 2017 A one-day conference called “Africa-China-America Peace and Security Dialogue” was co-organized by The Carter Center and the Shanghai Institute of International Studies. It was held in Shanghai on October 16. The two main subjects of the conference were maritime security and peace and security issues in Lake Chad Basin. After the meeting, The Carter Center delegation visited Beijing. Two members of AFRICOM, one colonel and one diplomat, joined The Carter Center delegation and attended all the meetings in Shanghai and Beijing.

November 4-5, 2017 Mpako Foaleng, the security sector reform adviser at UNWAS, presented a paper on trilateral consultation project on behalf of The Carter Center at the Beijing Forum held at Peking University.

November 13, 2017 The Carter Center was invited to attend the follow up meeting on US-China collaboration on peace and security in Africa jointly organized by USIP and CICIR in Washington, DC.

February 24-31, 2018 Jordan Ryan, former vice president of Peace Programs at The Carter Center, attended an international conference on Lake Chad Basin development organized by UNESCO. He visited with both American and Chinese ambassadors in Nigeria and met with many UN officials.

August 3-4, 2018 On Aug. 3-4, The Carter Center organized a consultation workshop in Djibouti which brought together 30 participants to discuss the status and give suggestions for trilateral cooperation. Minister Ilyas Dawaleh, Minister of Economy and Finance of the Djiboutian Government, and Jordan Ryan gave opening remarks at the forum. Other key note addresses were offered by Larry Andre, US Ambassador to Djibouti; Jalal Abdel-Latif, UNECA; Larry Sampler, President of One Earth Future; Weizhong Xu, Director of African studies at CICIR; and Donald Booth, former US Special Envoy to Sudan and South Sudan. Following the day and a half of meetings, Minister Dawaleh provided a tour of Djibouti to show the trade ports, the international free trade and economic zone, and other infrastructure projects in the area.

CP staff, Jordan Ryan, and Ambassador Donald Booth met with the director and a researcher at the Institute of Political and Strategic Studies at the Center of Study and Research of Djibouti. The discussion focused on the current work on the institute and possible areas of joint research and future collaboration.

September 18, 2018 On Sept. 18, the Carter Center organized a roundtable in DC to analyze the 2018 FOCAC summit in Beijing. This roundtable featured a range of participants from the Stimson Center, the China Africa Research Initiative, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the Institute for China-America Studies, George Washington University, the National Defense University, and Wake Forest University.

December 10-11, 2018 China Program co-organized a meeting with the South African Institutes of International Affairs in Johannesburg on December 10-11. All three principals of the trilateral project attended the meeting, offering detailed recommendations and frank discussion. Over 30 experts consisting of academics, practitioners, and former government officials contributed to the discussion. Representatives from the US State Department and Chinese Embassy also attended as observers. Topics included the role of NGO actors in trilateral cooperation, public health, the possibility of cooperation in foreign aid and investment between the Chinese BRI and American development policies post-BUILD Act, and African perspectives on trilateral cooperation.

May 2019 China Program co-organized a workshop exploring opportunities for trilateral cooperation in public health, with the Institute for Developing Nations and the Centre for Dialogue, Research, and Cooperation (Minister Seyoum Mesfin’s Addis-based think tank). Ethiopian State Minister for Health Dr. Lia Tadesse gave opening remarks, and the workshop was attended by representatives from the Ethiopian health ministry, the Sudanese health ministry, the AU CDC, the U.S. CDC, the Chinese CDC, and Peking University’s Institute for Global Health.