Levers of influence, Africa, Diplomatic power
christian.diet…
Thu, 09/17/2026 – 22:12
8 minutes
China maintains embassies in all 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations, against 50 EU Delegations and 49 US embassies. Six countries — Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal and Tunisia — host all 15 external actors tracked.
High-level visits are concentrated in North Africa, led by the EU (75 visits across 25 countries), followed by Türkiye and China, which has the widest and most geographically balanced coverage of any actor.
China stands out for the breadth of its formal partnerships, while the EU, US and UAE formalise more selectively. Summit diplomacy is increasingly crowded, with established EU, Chinese and Japanese frameworks alongside newer, more intermittent initiatives from Russia, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
At the UN, abstention remains the predominant African position, though African states align more closely with the EU than Russia on Ukraine, and with China, India and Türkiye on decolonisation.
Diplomatic engagement is one of the clearest signals of how external actors position themselves across Africa. The density of …read more