Interview: China's positive engagement will promote stability, peaceful dev't in Horn of Africa

ADDIS ABABA, March 31 (Xinhua) -- China's strong commitment and positive engagement towards peaceful development in the Horn of Africa (HoA) will help create stability and peaceful development across the region, an Ethiopian expert has said.

Eyob Belachew, an Ethiopia-based international relations and political analyst, told Xinhua that the HoA region is volatile, incessantly ravaged by intra and inter-state conflicts.

"There is a high level of extra regional actors' penetration within the regional security agenda, which, I think, is the major source of prolonged and protracted conflicts in the region, along with socioeconomic and geopolitical factors," he said.

Emphasizing the wide-ranging security challenges affecting the region, the expert emphasized that the challenges are inter-connected threats to social stability and regional security, which demand the efforts of all actors involved in the instabilities in the region.

Amid a series of old and emerging security perils, countries in the region are urgently in need to find fresh conflict resolution approaches to ensure stability and peaceful socio-economic development.

Belachew emphasized that China's growing positive engagement would bring in a desirable outcome for countries in the region in fulfilling their quest for peaceful coexistence.

"China, as a global power and player, aspires to instill peace in the region. It is of paramount importance to the Chinese government to facilitate and establish the platform for inter-regional dialogue, which I believe will help to create stability and peace in the region and avoid the geographical contestation among countries of the region and pursue a path of unity and development," the expert said.

He emphasized that the proposal by China to hold a peace dialogue in the region "can play a huge part" towards peaceful development in the region.

Commending China's commitment to play its role in demonstrating its initiative of peaceful development in the HoA region in a multidimensional approach, he called on other global powers to follow China's positive role.

"However, still, there is a higher demand for all actors to play a fair and constructive role in firmly perusing peace, development, and good governance in the region," he said.

During his visit to Africa at the beginning of the year, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed the "Outlook on Peace and Development in the Horn of Africa", which aims to support regional countries in achieving lasting peace and security and embracing development and prosperity.