After a meeting with China Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday, PCS Musalia Mudavadi announced Beijing had elevated bilateral ties with Nairobi to an “All-Weather Kenya-China Community with a Shared Future for the New Era” level.
Mudavadi said the move was “a landmark development that speaks to the strength, trust, and shared vision” underpinning the bilateral partnership.
“I emphasized that this upgraded relationship is a testament to our mutual commitment to cooperation, respect, and the pursuit of win-win outcomes that can serve as a model for other African nations.
“I expressed Kenya’s deep appreciation for China’s continued support, particularly in financial and trade cooperation. I also underscored the importance of concluding discussions on financial cooperation before the end of June 2025, as a critical step forward,” the CS said.
Mudavadi was back to Beijing for the China for the Ministerial Coordinator’s Meeting on the Implementation of the Beijing Summit of FOCAC.
So, what does the “All-Weather” cooperation mean?
For China, all-weather, all-round, strategic, comprehensive and future-oriented are descriptors it elevates diplomatic relations with its more than 100 allies to.
This categorization can be traced to 1993, when China elevated ties with Brazil — a co-founder of the BRICS — to “strategic partnership” and then a “partnership of strategic coordination” with Russia — another BRICS co-founder —in 1996.
According to The South China Morning Post, these are part of designations that form Beijing’s elaborate network of diplomacy relationships that describe various types of bilateral partnerships.
China’s former Prime Minister explained the categorization in a 2004 keynote speech in Brussels.
Wen Jiabao said terms such as “comprehensive”, “strategic” and “partnership” provide a key to understanding China’s approach to international relationships with it allies to mean the different levels at which Beijing was relating to its allies.
According to Wen, “comprehensive” covered a multifaceted cooperation spanning economic, technological, cultural and political fields, while those countries also worked together on multilateral levels. The comprehensive partnership also included government-to-government and people-to-people cooperation.
On the other hand, the term “strategic” meant bilateral cooperation was stable, long term and holistic, transcending differences in ideology and political systems, while “partnership” was built on the pillars of mutual benefit and mutual trust, while both sides strive for win-win cooperation.
China also has the “comprehensive” category, which indicates the strategic significance goes beyond one particular domain, as in the case of several African countries that are of broad strategic value to China and encompass resource acquisition, expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative and enhanced support at multilateral institutions.
The term “cooperative” suggests the referred cooperation is a vital part of those bilateral ties and that differences in one domain would not upset cooperation in other areas.
On relations that are described as “all-weather” or “permanent”, it means the partners have “profound political trust and extensive cooperation across various sectors, with mutual support and collaborative stances in regional and international affairs”.
All weather, experts say, suggest permanency of bilateral relations, whereby China aims to prioritise cooperation with such categorized countries amid changing geopolitical scenarios.
China-Africa relations expert Dr. Adhere Cavince opines that the elevation means that the two sides enjoy historically informed and contemporarily grounded cordial ties that are unaffected by external factors or forces.
“It is often based on mutual trust, unwavering support, strategic and mutually reinforcing benefits as well as resilience”, Dr Cavince says.
In this regard, Minister Wang and PCS Mudavadi agreed that amid the global changes and turbulence, it is important to promote extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit in global governance, shape a fairer and more equitable international order.
It is thus also most goes without saying that in attaining this categorization, Kenya had to reaffirm for the umptieth of its unwavering support for the One-China Policy — the top Beijing foreign policy objective. Kenya has in its revised Foreign Policy 2024 anchored the One-China policy, reflecting the seriousness with which it upholds the stance.
Faced with a heavily expectant but disgruntled population against his many pledges, President Ruto has turned to China to fund some of his legacy projects.
Already, President Ruto secured a funding arrangement for the Rironi-Mau Summit Road following his state visit to Beijing in April.
With it, the President the road is likely to change his fortunes in Western Kenya, amidst murmurs of “being left out” in development.
The President also managed to finally unlock the financing for the SGR extension to Malaba albeit under a tougher funding model.
