The U.S. and China’s latest battleground: Ethiopia’s $12.5 billion, 110 million-passengers Bishoftu Int’l Airport. Source: @firstpost
Watch this video of my interview with Firstpost.
My take is optimistic: there’s room enough for everyone to participate despite the airport becoming a microcosm of a much larger geopolitical contest for influence.
Prime Minister Abiy has positioned Ethiopia in the middle without taking sides and is turning the competition between the two superpowers into an opportunity to benefit the country.
For the U.S., the stakes are high: Ethiopian Airlines, which owns the airport, has billions of dollars in Boeing jets on order, powered by American-made GE engines. That gives Washington a direct commercial incentive to deepen its involvement and it aligns with President Trump’s new policy of prioritizing “trade and investment instead of aid”, especially in African countries that are strategically important to the U.S.
China, meanwhile, won’t be ceding ground. Beijing can rightly highlight twenty-five years of infrastructure projects its done in Ethiopia and billions of dollars in FDI. The relationship is further reinforced by Ethiopia becoming a full member of BRICS, in 2024, the bloc China helped found. And, more recently, Ethiopia decided to join the New Development Bank (aka BRICS Bank) based in Shanghai.
Full broadcast: https://t.co/Z2lDsbM650 @alysonle
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South Africa has to be careful about the impact of chasing foreigners from its research and higher learning institutions. The consequences can be devastating for the country, and indeed for Africa. There is a global market for top talent.
Moment a new xenophobic and Afrophobic group emerged in South Africa. The group has been going around apartment buildings demanding that foreign nationals leave, regardless of whether they are legally in the country. They confronted a white landlord and demanded that he hand over the foreigner living in his building, but he refused.
@mcese01@fweshtiny There is a city in South Africa black people not welcome! Imagine that how degrading it is?
We black people fought together against the system now they put new system to divided and conquer
The white manages and talking all gold while you live in trashy places. Wake up !!
@AbongileNonkel2@fweshtiny There is a city in South Africa black people not welcome! Imagine that how degrading it is?
We black people fought together against the system now they put new system to divided and conquer
The white manages and talking all gold while you live in trashy places. Wake up !!
@LonnzWay@fweshtiny There is a city in South Africa black people not welcome! Imagine that how degrading it is?
We black people fought together against the system now they put new system to divided and conquer
The white manages and talking all gold while you live in trashy places. Wake up !!
✈️🌍 AFRICAN CHAMPIONS ARE NO LONGER CONTENT WITH LEADING AFRICA. THEY ARE BUILDING GLOBAL AMBITIONS.
Ethiopian Airlines has just recorded annual revenues of $9.1 billion—up 20%—after carrying 20.7 million passengers and 897,000 tonnes of cargo. It now connects Ethiopia to 150 international destinations and is preparing further aircraft orders and a new mega-hub designed to accommodate 60 million passengers annually. This is no longer simply Africa’s largest airline. It is an African global champion. 🇪🇹✈️
And it is not an isolated achievement.
Ethiopia has built the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa’s largest hydroelectric power project. ⚡ It has planted more than 48 billion seedlings through the Green Legacy Initiative and rehabilitated 12.5 million hectares of land. 🌱🌳 It is demonstrating—despite conflict, geopolitical disruption and severe economic constraints—what sustained ambition, institutional capacity and confidence can produce.
Across the continent, a new generation of African champions is emerging in aviation, finance, telecommunications, logistics, energy, agribusiness, technology, culture and the creative industries. They are expanding across borders, conquering markets and refusing to accept the diminished expectations so often imposed on Africa. 🚀
Afropessimism will not be defeated by speeches. It will be defeated by performance: one balance sheet, one engineering project, one global brand and one audacious ambition at a time. 📈🏗️🌍
Africa’s future is not something to be predicted from outside. It is already being built from within. 🔥
State-owned Ethiopian Airlines' full-year 2025/26 revenue rose 20% from the same period a year earlier to $9.1 billion, state-run Ethiopia News Agency said on Wednesday. https://t.co/tnSNFWBIOC
@JossyFCB@Ang1018661@AlbicelesteTalk Imagine defending Argentina by cursing on internet 🛜. Good job!
Something wrong with your upbringing? What is the actual problem?