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Nigeria, China plot collaboration on military training, arms production

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The Federal Government on Thursday revealed that it is having a serious security partnership with the People’s Republic of China for local arms production and military training.

Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, disclosed this when he briefed State House correspondents after President Bola Tinubu received China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, yesterday.

Tuggar noted that this forms part of its broader strategy to tackle terrorism and other forms of insecurity within and outside its borders.

Wang Yi is on a four-nation week-long Africa tour, which ends on Saturday after stops in Namibia, DR Congo, Nigeria and Chad.

Tuggar stated that bolstering cooperation with key partners like China would help Nigeria and its neighbours respond to shared threats more efficiently.

“We want to work with countries like China in domesticating production of military equipment, both kinetic and non-kinetic.

“We’re looking for this, so, we don’t have to go out looking to procure with delays and many rules and regulations. We need to be able to produce locally,” he said.

“Let us work together towards solving our problems by ourselves. Let us shun this idea of allowing others to solve our problems for us.

READ ALSO: Tinubu pushes for increased currency swap between Nigeria and China

“So, private military companies, as far as we are concerned, don’t matter whether they’re from north, south, east, or west. We don’t think it is going to provide the panacea.

“But when you (China) work with us, we can lead others in solving the problem. Nigeria is a very responsible country working with the constitution, so we’ve never had any expansionist tendencies.

“This is why others repose so much confidence in us and our leadership. And we will continue to work with countries such as China to address these challenges,” Tuggar said.

Wang Yi, who also spoke to State House correspondents stressed his country’s opposition to foreign involvement in Africa’s internal matters and highlighted the importance of African nations leading their own peacekeeping and counterterrorism efforts.

Wang pledged Beijing’s full support for initiatives aimed at enhancing the continent’s security, including a CN¥1bn military assistance package.

This also includes training 6,000 military personnel and 1,000 police and law enforcement officers for various African countries and supporting the African Standby Force and rapid response forces.

“China will firmly support Africa in strengthening peace and security capacity building. We will work with Africa to establish a partnership for implementing the Global Security Initiative, or GSI, and make it a fine example of GSI cooperation.

“We will work to advance the partnership action for common security and provide CN¥1bn of grants in military assistance to Africa and help train 6000 military personnel and 1000 police and law enforcement personnel for African countries.

China will also continue to support the building of the African standby force and the rapid response forces and support African countries in carrying out counter-terrorism peacekeeping operations. China will firmly support Africa in safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests, practising true multilateralism and not letting power politics and bullyism (sic) find their place in Africa,” Wang said.

The Chinese officials also affirmed that his country would consider Nigeria’s request to expand the bilateral currency swap agreement.

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