PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu will hold bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation Summit between September 4 and 6, 2024.
Tinubu will visit China to represent the West African bloc ECOWAS at the Summit. The Nigerian president is the chairman of the Authority of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Heads of State and Government.
At the summit, Tinubu will discuss regional peace and security, presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale told State House correspondents on Tuesday.
Ngelale added that the trip aims to yield significant economic benefits for Nigeria.
The planned meeting between Tinubu and one of the world’s most powerful presidents will take place amid a flurry of seizures of Nigerian assets by a Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited.
A former Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Usman Sarki, had said diplomatic steps are a surefire way to end the firm’s seizure of Nigerian assets abroad.
Sarki urged Tinubu to meet with his Chinese counterpart as soon as possible to resolve the conflict between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Chinese company.
A French court recently ruled in favour of the firm and granted the seizure of presidential jets belonging to the Nigerian government.
In the dispute involving an arbitration award, the court in Paris ruled in favour of the Chinese firm, allowing it to seize three presidential jets on routine maintenance in France as “security” for claims in a decades-long judicial matter between the foreign company and the Ogun State government.
