Chinese takeover of Ethiopian railways project

ndia has lost out to China in the race to build several Ethiopian railways, including the strategically important line to Djibouti that allows land-locked Ethiopia access to the sea. The struggle between the two countries for influence in Africa is really hotting up.
For India, this looked like a done deal. In January this year the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zanawi, tackled the project with the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa. He asked for specific Indian funding for the various projects.
But the charismatic Tharoor is gone – he resigned after the IPL scandal – and India has dithered on funding the construction of railway lines to stretch 5,000 kilometres from Addis Ababa into various regions of Ethiopia. Consequently, China has stepped in and granted the country a multi-million pound loan… And, let’s be clear, the resulting goodwill likely to be shown to China will be vast.
At present (and I went there yesterday) the beautiful century-old railway station in Addis Ababa is covered in weeds after lying inactive for several years, and is also under threat because of a local street project
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