China offers Sudan stronger military ties

April 3, 2007 (BEIJING) — China and Sudan have agreed to strengthen military ties, state media reported, underscoring the two countries’ close and controversial cooperation as some Western nations seek U.N action over bloodshed in Darfur.

The United States and other Western powers have sought to pressure Sudan into accepting United Nations peacekeepers to quell violence in Sudan’s western province of Darfur, where government-backed militia have been fighting rebel forces. African Union forces there have failed to stop massacres.

But China, which buys much of Sudan’s oil and wields veto-power over U.N. resolutions, has rejected U.N forces without Khartoum’s agreement. Instead, Chinese Minister of Defence Cao Gangchuan courted Sudan’s visiting Joint Chief of Staff, Haj Ahmed El Gaili.

Cao told him that Beijing wants to extend military cooperation, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday.

“Military relations between China and Sudan have been developing smoothly for a long time,” Cao told him, according to Xinhua. China was “willing to further develop cooperation between the two militaries in every sphere”, he added.

Haj Ahmed El Gaili arrived in Beijing on Sunday for an eight-day visit to China, Xinhua reported.

In Darfur, over 200,000 people are believed to have died and some 2.5 million have been driven from their homes into squalid camps since ethnic tensions erupted into revolt in 2003.

U.N. reports on Darfur have blamed Arab militias, which they say are backed by Khartoum, for atrocities including mass rape and murder.

Washington has long criticised fellow permanent Security Council member China for not using its economic sway to press Sudan to let U.N. peacekeepers deploy in Darfur.

Beijing says it favours a no-strings approach to investment and aid in Africa. Sudan is the biggest target for Chinese investment in Africa, a U.N. agency reported last week.

(Reuters)