Chinese President Xi Jinping held separate bilateral meetings with the leaders of Ecuador and Senegal on Friday in what appears to be a concerted effort by Beijing to maintain strong ties with Global South countries, even as major power diplomacy increasingly dominates Beijing’s foreign policy agenda.

These are the kind of high-level engagements with African and South American leaders that didn’t happen very often during the previous U.S. administration and are even less frequent now during Donald Trump’s presidency, particularly with African heads of state.

And as ties between China and G7 countries remain strained, as they are today with few exceptions, relations with smaller developing countries become even more important for Beijing to build a global coalition that it hopes will serve as a bulwark against its rivals in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

That coalition will be anchored by stronger Chinese economic relations between China and these countries, namely the Belt and Road Initiative, and also framed by Beijing’s emerging international governance architecture that includes the Global Development and Security Initiatives, among others.

Highlights From Xi’s Bilaterals With the Leaders of Ecuador and Senegal

• ECUADOR: The highlight of the discussion between Xi and President Daniel Noboa was the signing of “a plan to advance the BRI” in Ecuador. None of the Chinese readouts of the meeting provided any details of that plan or what it means in practice. (MERCOPRESS)

• SENEGAL: Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko’s meeting with Xi came at the end of a whirlwind visit to Beijing that included sessions with senior Communist Party officials, development finance agencies, and China’s development agency CIDCA. The PM reportedly signed a number of MOUs during his trip, but it doesn’t appear that he is returning home with any binding commitments. (APA NEWS)

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? This is the kind of small-state diplomacy that China has done for years. The U.S. and European countries, for the most part, don’t prioritize this the same way. As many of these countries in the Global South feel increasingly shut out of the U.S., either through tariffs or visa restrictions, Xi’s hospitality will likely gain even more appreciation in the future.