He said more than 14 meetings were held between Chinese institutions and different strata at the African Union Commission to promote the “mass adoption of the BeiDou Navigation System”.
South Africa’s National Space Agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Satellite Network Office for BDS applications in 2021.
“We are seeing a lot of collaboration across all industry sectors, including communications, Earth observations, navigation and positioning, and space satellites,” Oniosun said.
Oniosun made the comments on November 14 at an event organized by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) to release its report on China’s space cooperation with Africa. The study was conducted by Julie Klinger, an assistant professor in the department of geography and spatial sciences at the University of Delaware and Oniosun.
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Oniosun said China is developing satellite technology for different African customers and has so far built about $900 million worth of satellites for them.
He told the USIP event that in addition to satellites, China is developing ground station infrastructure for countries such as Ethiopia – the Entoto Observatory and Research Center in Addis Ababa – Nigeria and Algeria.
According to the study, China launched the first communications satellites for Nigeria (in 2007 and 2011) and Algeria (2017), and the first satellites for Ethiopia and Sudan (both in 2019).
By October 2021, about 23 of Africa’s 54 countries had bilateral space partnerships with China, the report said.
Ethiopia is a model of China’s entrenched strategic relations in space in Africa. China funded the development of two satellites (ETRSS-1 and ET-SMART-RS) and two ground stations, including a multi-satellite ground receiving station in Ethiopia.
Other countries have also funded the construction and launch of satellites in Africa. Kenya’s 1KUNS-PF was partly financed by Japan, while Angola’s AngoSat-1 communications satellite was financed with loans from Russia.
However, according to the USIP study, China’s space spending in African countries integrates development with counterterrorism and peace and security applications and is part of a much broader framework of domestic programs and diverse international partnerships.
For example, in Nigeria, China has not only helped fund communications satellites and train Nigerian satellite scientists and engineers, but has partnered with the Nigerian Defense Space Administration (DSA), which provides space and cyber capabilities to the Nigerian military and services. law enforcement.
According to the study, China helped “develop and manage Nigeria’s military space technologies, support military operations both inside and outside the country, and assist security agencies responsible for internal security,” resulting in indirect involvement in the counter-terrorism and military aspect of Nigeria. satellite development.
In addition, the study said, the Chinese Academy of Sciences is working with the United Nations Environment Program to establish a network of Chinese and African scientists to use space technology to prepare for natural disasters and monitor climate change, and of resilience, with particular emphasis on agriculture.
Joseph Sani, vice president of the Africa Center at the US Institute of Peace, said space programs existed in more than 20 African countries and were growing rapidly in number and investment rates.
Sany said many received funding from the Chinese government and worked with Chinese state-owned enterprises. “China is promoting space cooperation in Africa in a very deliberate way, allocating funds and identifying existing priority areas such as climate change and counter-terrorism efforts,” Sani said.
He said that while US private and public agencies have worked with African countries in the space industry and program development, “these efforts are not coordinated through current US foreign policy.”
Oniosun said Africa, however, offers decent business opportunities for global space companies.
“Not only the US … but many global space companies are struggling right now and some of them have had to file for bankruptcy,” he said, adding that Chinese companies had capitalized on this for years and only now were American companies waking up to this reality. .
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Oniosun said among China’s actions that may shape the space industry in the next decade was the exploration of African territory for satellite launches.
“They are currently in talks with Djibouti to create infrastructure to launch satellites from Africa,” he said, explaining that the location of many African countries on the equator provided a good landscape to support satellite launches or even missions to the moon.
The study reported that some US universities and federal agencies were actively involved in research collaborations with African countries.
Cornell University researchers in 2021 began developing East Africa’s first high-resolution carbon monitoring system that combines bottom-up ecological models with top-down satellite data thanks to a three-year, $1 million grant USA by Nasa. Nasa is also funding a project by researchers at the University of Buffalo to map species and ecosystems in the southwestern tip of South Africa.
While US private and state players are actively involved in Africa’s space sector, US support for space technology development is not coordinated with broader US foreign policy goals.
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“The US does not have a clear strategy for cooperation with its African counterparts in the field of space and this contrasts with China, the European Community and Russia who have dedicated personnel or plans specifically for engaging with Africa and Russia . [the] space domain,” Klinger said.
He said the US’s engagement with Africa in relation to space was a response to China’s aggression.
“The fact that it is reactive again highlights the lack of careful engagement with the African Union Commission or with individual African countries to really understand how both sides can benefit,” Klinger said at the USIP event.