{"id":13599,"date":"2026-01-09T16:38:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T16:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/13599\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T16:38:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T16:38:05","slug":"chinas-top-diplomat-postpones-visit-to-somalia-arrives-in-tanzania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/13599\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s top diplomat postpones visit to Somalia, arrives in Tanzania"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOGADISHU, Jan 9 (Reuters) – China’s top diplomat postponed what would have been a historic visit to Somalia, part of a tour of Africa aimed at bolstering strategic trade, the East African nation’s foreign affairs ministry said on Friday.<\/p>\n

Wang Yi’s planned visit would have been the first by a Chinese foreign minister since the 1980s.<\/p>\n

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It had been expected to provide Mogadishu with a diplomatic boost after Israel became the first country to formally recognise<\/a> the breakaway Republic of Somaliland, a northern region that declared its independence in 1991.Somalia’s relations with the U.S. are also at a low point after Washington said this week it would pause<\/a> further assistance that benefits the government over a dispute about the demolition of a World Food Programme warehouse.<\/p>\n

Somali foreign affairs ministry officials told Reuters that the reason for the postponement and a future schedule for Wang’s visit would be provided later.<\/p>\n

China’s foreign affairs ministry did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Wang began his annual New Year’s tour<\/a> of Africa on Wednesday, focusing on strategic trade access across East and Southern Africa as Beijing seeks to secure critical shipping routes and resource supply lines.<\/p>\n

He arrived in Dar es Salaam on Friday for a two-day working visit, Tanzania’s foreign ministry said in a post on its X account.<\/p>\n

It added that the visit aims to strengthen bilateral relations and deepen economic ties between the two nations.<\/p>\n

Wang met with Ethiopian Prime Minister<\/a> Abiy Ahmed on Thursday and called for greater cooperation with Africa’s fastest-growing economy, including in infrastructure, green industry, and the digital economy.<\/p>\n

He is also expected to travel to Lesotho during the trip, which is due to conclude on January 12.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Sfundo Parakozov in Johannesburg and Joe Cash in Beijing;
\nEditing by Philippa Fletcher and Joe Bavier<\/p>\n

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Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOGADISHU, Jan 9 (Reuters) – China’s top diplomat postponed what would have been a historic visit to Somalia,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[488,9265,2096,4590,4893,1989,1783,2003,710,702,1997,712,707,2000,2005,704,1998,708,1995,495,2002,1784,2001,1788,1999,1782,2006,2004,5602,699,711,5360,1392,492,4892,491,493,690,5394,1880,694,5955,3396,1405,1996,695,1399,1992,5956,5395,152,1779,5601,1776,2739,2740,4960,489],"class_list":{"0":"post-13599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tanzania","8":"tag-afr","9":"tag-afru","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-asxpac","12":"tag-cn","13":"tag-cwp","14":"tag-destabn","15":"tag-destafa","16":"tag-destafn","17":"tag-destc","18":"tag-destcsa","19":"tag-destd","20":"tag-destdnp","21":"tag-destg","22":"tag-destgns","23":"tag-destgro","24":"tag-destlby","25":"tag-destmtl","26":"tag-destouswdm","27":"tag-destozatpm","28":"tag-destpge","29":"tag-destpsc","30":"tag-destrast","31":"tag-destrbn","32":"tag-destreulb","33":"tag-destrnp","34":"tag-destrws","35":"tag-destrwsa","36":"tag-destseatp","37":"tag-destsof","38":"tag-destucdptest","39":"tag-destz","40":"tag-dip","41":"tag-eafr","42":"tag-easia","43":"tag-emea","44":"tag-emrg","45":"tag-gen","46":"tag-il","47":"tag-inds","48":"tag-intag","49":"tag-ls","50":"tag-meast","51":"tag-mtpix","52":"tag-packageworld-news","53":"tag-pol","54":"tag-safr","55":"tag-secur","56":"tag-so","57":"tag-swasia","58":"tag-tanzania","59":"tag-topcmb","60":"tag-topicworld-china-slug","61":"tag-topnws","62":"tag-tpt","63":"tag-tran","64":"tag-trd","65":"tag-tz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}