…as China promises to consider Nigeria’s wish to increase line on currency swap
…welcomes issuance of Panda Bond in China, to support infrastructure dev’t in Nigeria
…vows to train 6000 military personnel, and 1000 police officers for African countries

The Federal Government has rejected the option of employing foreign mercenaries in fighting insecurity in the West African subregion, opting instead to work with China and other foreign countries in domesticating the production of kinetic and non-kinetic military equipment in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar at a briefing after President Bola Tinubu meeting with the Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister, Wang Yi at the Presidential Villa on Thursday.

The Minister said “Nigeria has consistently proved effective in leading other countries in our region, and I would even say, on the continent at large, in addressing challenges to peace and security, and we do this whenever we partner with other countries and have their support, including major powers that are outside of our region, outside of Africa, and we appreciate that sort of approach.

And this is why we work well with countries like China. Where we have a problem is when we can see that whenever Nigeria is left out of such arrangements, it becomes more challenging.

“And it’s not just a one-off thing. It’s not; it’s not a fluke. It is because of Nigeria’s place and position on the continent and in our region, and that’s why we take a firm stand and say, let us work together towards solving our problems by ourselves. Let us shun this idea of allowing others to come in to solve our problems for us.

“So private military companies, as far as we are concerned, it doesn’t matter whether they’re from north, south, east, west. We don’t think it is going to provide the panacea. But when you work with us, then we’re able to lead others in solving the problem.

And also, want to work with countries like China in domesticating the production of military equipment, both kinetic and non-kinetic. This is what we’re looking for so that we don’t have to go out looking to procure and the delays and you know, so many rules and regulations. We need to be able to produce locally.

Nigeria is a very responsible country working with the Constitution, and that’s why, we’ve never had any expansionist tendencies, which is why others reposed so much confidence in us and in our leadership. And we will continue to work with countries such as China in addressing these challenges and rely on countries such as China, also, to work with us towards ensuring that private military country companies outside interference remain outside.”

Yu, in his comments at the briefing, said both countries should leverage their respective strengths and further tap the cooperation potential in areas including clean energy, green mining and finance.

On the issue of currency swaps, the Chinese Minister said “The currency swap agreement shows how well we have carried out our financial cooperation and sustained its momentum. With regard to Nigeria’s wish to increase the line of the currency swap, we will favourably study and consider the issue.

“Our cooperation is going well in many ways, in terms of finance. For instance, we welcome the Panda Bonds to be issued. We welcome Nigeria to issue Panda Bonds in China because we have full confidence in Nigeria’s credibility. By issuing Panda Bonds, Nigeria will gain good revenue and safety is guaranteed through financial support. We are working to contribute to Nigeria’s infrastructure development in particular railway.”

Commenting on the issue of global security, the Chinese Minister said his country “would like to work with Africa to deliver on the global security initiative in Africa and together achieve a modernization featuring peace and security and build an all-weather, China-Africa community with a sha