German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has resuscitated the frantic effort to rebuild the EU’s waned diplomatic and commercial presence in Africa in the face of growing Chinese and Russian influence in one of the fastest-growing regions of the world.

Scholz’s May 4–May 7 official visit to Ethiopia and Kenya—the second to the continent in less than a year since taking office—saw him making the case for the African Union (AU) joining the G20, discussing economic cooperation and global challenges such as climate change.

But coming amid the raging conflicts in Sudan and Ukraine—and in the wake of the two-year war in Ethiopia—the German chancellor’s visit has been varyingly appreciated by critics.

The visit came “too little, too late” for Scholz who intended it as a window to rectify Russian propaganda justifying its war on Ukraine as a result of NATO’s expansion zeal, said Teniola Tayo, Trade Policy Fellow at the Africa Policy Research Institute.

This, according to the policy analyst, is because African public discourse has largely moved away from the war in Ukraine.

“There have been other crises within Africa, such as the ongoing conflict in Sudan that is taking up more attention,” Teniola told The Epoch Times via a messaging app.

“There are also probably more effective ways of correcting some of the disinformation that exists within African public spaces, as the leaders [that] Scholz engaged with are more likely to know the facts of the situation and are not as vulnerable to the prevailing rhetoric.”

Scholz’s visit was not unconnected with Europe’s “strategic re-engagement” with Africa due to a widespread concern about increasing European disinterest on the continent, according to Paul Nantulya, Research Associate and China Specialist at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University.

Nantulya told The Epoch Times that Europe has been engaged in Africa for decades and has always been the continent’s “most valued” and “strategic” partner long before China’s resurgence on the continent in the 2000s under the Forum for China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) mechanism.

“The visit was also driven by a desire to demonstrate Germany’s commitment to lift Africa’s voice in international affairs—in particular a call for a permanent African seat in the G-20 which will undoubtedly resonate with African countries as it is something they have fought for since the signing of the Ezulwini Consensus in 2005 that spells out Africa’s position on international system reform,” Nantulya commented to The Epoch Times via email.

A G20 seat would give one of the fastest-growing regions of the world a bigger voice on key issues such as climate change.

The choices of Ethiopia, as the seat of the AU, and Kenya as one of the AU’s most influential members, Nantulya explained, were certainly informed by Germany’s push for a more influential African position in international affairs.

“African countries tend to have objections to the dominance of Western European powers and the United States in international relations and therefore sometimes support Russia and China, whom they believe are putting up a challenge—irrespective of what that challenge looks like.”

At the same time, African countries largely view post-Soviet Russia as “the successor” of the Soviet Union whose record in supporting the fight for African independence and the battle against white minority rule in Southern Africa and apartheid in South Africa and Namibia is well-established.

“These memories are firmly etched in the political mindsets and attitudes of modern day Africans and should not be dismissed. This explains in part African states’ voting behavior at the UN when it comes to votes involving Russia and its re-invasion of Ukraine,” said Nantulya.

The only way out, the researcher suggests, is for African countries, Europe, and the United States to have “an open and frank dialogue about their historical and contemporary grievances and to validate those grievances.”

While in Ethiopia, the German Chancellor met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and the interim leader of the Tigray region, Gatchew Reda, and discussed progress in ensuring peace after a two-year war that killed at least 600,000 people.

He also met with African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat and discussed the latest developments in Sudan, economic cooperation, and global challenges such as climate change.

While in Kenya, Scholz discussed trade relations and how to end the ongoing conflict in Sudan, as well as Kenya’s success story of using renewable energy with President William Ruto.

Scholz also visited Africa’s biggest geothermal plant, at Lake Naivasha, in the geologically active Great Rift Valley, which is key to Kenya’s plans for producing green hydrogen.

“We don’t have any volcanic regions like this in Germany, but we have many areas and landscapes that have potential for geothermal energy,” he said.

“It is also something that we can use in Germany, and we will do so. Because there is a lot of potential in this way of producing energy in a climate-friendly way. Geothermal energy is possible in many more places in Germany than people think today.”

The government in Berlin is convinced that Europe can make a better partner with Africa than China. Kenya and Ethiopia have been among the recipients of China’s largest loans to the continent.

That includes funding for Kenya’s largest infrastructure project since becoming independent—a railway line between Nairobi and Mombasa that has since run into refinancing troubles.

During his talks in Ethiopia and Kenya, Scholz discussed the challenge of debt reduction and China’s role in those efforts.

Africa is the largest regional component of China’s controversial $1 trillion Belt and Road initiative to reset global commerce.

But the scheme has received a backlash from African leaders who fume it is creating an unsustainable debt issue while enslaving the people of Africa.

China’s role as the primary lender for many developing nations has increasingly become part of the wider strategic competition with the United States for influence across the globe.

The European Union and the United States have both touted their own alternatives to the BRI, but both schemes rely on private lenders making their prospects uncertain.

Germany and other European countries view Beijing increasingly as a strategic competitor and they are struggling to reduce their economic dependencies on China, a lesson learned from their over-reliance on Russian energy.

Tibor Nagy, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs hinted to The Epoch Times that Germany is “much more interested” in expanding economic relations with Africa, especially strategic minerals—given its large auto industry.

“That’s where they might conflict with China—which as we all know has a lock on most strategic minerals required for [electric vehicle] EV production,” he says.

Kevin Jessip, the president of Global Strategic Alliance, concurs and adds that with tensions at a fever pitch as the Indo-Pacific region heats up over the Taiwan Straits—and geopolitically due to Russia’s war with Ukraine— Germany now finds itself “very dependent” upon China with its economic cooperation regarding various issues such as food security and climate change.

“Germany is not the only country that finds itself too dependent on China,” Jessip told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Chancellor Scholz’s trip was controversial,” he says.

“Despite objections from many of his cabinet and ruling coalition, he pushed through a controversial deal to allow the Chinese state-owned shipping company Cosco to purchase nearly 25 percent of Hamburg’s port terminals which continues to expand the supply chain of global ports globally controlled by the Chinese.”

Jessip bemoans Africa for its inability, in many cases, to show “accountability” and “transparency” with certain European and U.S. funds allocated to the needs of the intended peoples.

“In the recent Equity for Africa Conferences hosted by Liberty University in the United States—attended by presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, ministers of finance, businesses and parliamentarians alike—there is now a cry for China to be replaced as the BRI has only caused a new and unsustainable debt load which is being leveraged for the nations mineral rights and other national assets,” he said.

“The European Union will make an effort to invest in Africa, although Scholz went alone and not in coalition with other EU partners.”

Africa analyst Tayo and researcher Nantulya agree that Africa could make significant gains if its leaders can navigate the competition of outside powers wisely, with the determination to maximize the benefit for their own countries.

“African countries should not choose one partner at the expense of another, but should strategically navigate the various interests while leveraging for their own needs,” advises Teniola.

“There are things that the Chinese do well, that Western countries will struggle with,” she told The Epoch Times.

“For example, the Chinese generally have a higher deployment speed when it comes to executing projects. On the other hand, Western partners bring on board stronger accountability measures and more development financing that cuts across social sectors in African countries.

“Western partners are also critical to Africa’s green transition, both as a source of expertise and for climate financing.”

Before China came in with its BRI, Nantulya recalls, infrastructure financing was basically a “non-starter,” yet the demand for it was “very high.”

China’s BRI thus “forced” Europe, Japan, and the United States to come through with their own infrastructure financing packages, he said.

“This is a good thing for Africa because it increases the continent’s options, raises its profile, and plugs more financing to close its huge infrastructure gap of $100 billion per year.

“No single partner can close that gap, so there is a lot of room for African countries and private sectors to negotiate arrangements across the different mechanisms that are now in place.”

Nantulya says that the United States, Europe, and Japan have also been “re-thinking” their education, professionalization, and human resource development programs in Africa in light of China’s huge packages since the 2000s.

“This, too, is a good thing for Africa. It gives the continent options, increases competition, and delivers more for Africa—as long as African countries negotiate in the public interest.”