Africa, China, Canada could explore triangular partnership

As Africa's economic and geopolitical weight continues to rise, experts are increasingly highlighting the potential for a new Africa-China-Canada partnership that could reshape cooperation on critical minerals, infrastructure, climate action and global governance.

Speaking at a webinar on Africa-China-Canada policy dialogue last week, analysts said Africa's industrialization drive, coupled with shifting global power dynamics, is creating opportunities for a new form of collaboration that moves beyond traditional aid relationships and geopolitical competition.

Ovigwe Eguegu, an international security analyst at Development Reimagined, an African-led international development consultancy, said African countries are seeking to move from being a peripheral extractive zone to achieving industrial upgrading through resource beneficiation.

Meanwhile, China is becoming increasingly integral to Africa's economic development, while Canada is looking to diversify its economic partnerships and play a more proactive role globally. These converging trends, Eguegu said, make a trilateral Africa-China-Canada partnership both timely and strategically important.

He identified critical minerals as the most promising area for trilateral cooperation.

Africa boasts vast reserves of cobalt, lithium, manganese, platinum group metals and other strategic resources, while China has built extensive refining capacity, processing infrastructure and electric vehicle supply chains, he said.

Canada, meanwhile, brings strengths in mining finance, engineering, environmental management, geological expertise and access to international capital markets, he added.

These complementary advantages create opportunities for African countries to move further up global value chains through mineral processing and industrial development, rather than remaining exporters of raw commodities, Eguegu said.

He pointed to critical mineral certification, supply-chain traceability, environmental remediation and geological risk assessment as areas where Canadian expertise could add value.

Eguegu also highlighted hydropower and nuclear energy as sectors where the interests of Africa, China and Canada could converge.

As African countries seek reliable, low-carbon electricity sources to support industrialization, Canada's expertise in nuclear technology and China's expanding role in Africa's energy sector could create new opportunities for collaboration, he said.

China has made significant advances in nuclear energy, particularly in the development of small modular reactors, while Canada brings expertise through its domestically developed Canada Deuterium Uranium reactor technology, creating another avenue for cooperation in the energy sector, Eguegu said.

Philippe Rheault, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta in Canada, said the changing global order is creating greater space for middle powers and emerging economies to shape international affairs.

Unlike during the Cold War, when countries were often compelled to align with competing blocs, today's international system offers greater flexibility for middle powers to work together on issues such as trade, climate change, biodiversity, technology governance and reform of multilateral institutions, he said.

The webinar was organized by the Africa-China Centre for Policy and Advisory in Ghana and the Canadian Centre for African Affairs and Policy Research.