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The government of Tanzania, the African Development Bank, and the French Development Agency (AFD) have signed agreements for two development project loans worth $300 million. The funds will finance the construction of the 87.8-megawatt Kakono Hydropower Plant located in Kagera region in the northern part of Tanzania. The project also received a grant of EURO 36 million from the European Union.

Tanzania is dependent on hydropower and thermal power plantsmainly gas-firedfor its electricity supply. However, it has considerable untapped renewable energy potential to meet its rapid growth while taking a low-carbon path.

A coalition of development partners are financing the Kakono Hydropower Project, intended to increase renewable generation capacity and reduce hydrological risk via a dam located on a new watershed that is less affected by droughts. The signing ceremony took place on the 15th of March 2023 in Dar es Salaam.

The Kakono Hydropower Plant is the result of close collaboration between the African Development Bank, Agence francaise de developpement, and the European Union. These institutions are co-financing this project with a $ 161.47 million African Development Bank soft loan, a EURO 110 million soft loan from French Development Agency, and EURO 36 million grant from the European Union.

The Kakono Hydropower Project which will be implemented by Tanzanias Electric Supply Company (TANESCO), will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 216,065 metric tons per year, and comply with the best international environmental and social standards.

The project will serve 4 million people and increase the service coverage rate by around 7% of the population. It is expected to have a major impact on the economic development of this rapidly growing zone, which lies at the heart of the Great Lakes region. This project will boost industrialization and spur economic growth in Tanzania and the neighboring countries and will strengthen Tanzanias leading position within the East African Community.

Alongside construction of the new hydropower plant, there will also be associated infrastructure built, including the upgrading of the existing Kyaka substation and a new 39-kilometer 220-kilovolt transmission line, and capacity building support for TANESCO.

Following the ceremony participants expressed their support for the project.

African Development Bank Country Manager for Tanzania Patricia Laverley observed that when completed, the Kakono Hydropower Plant would serve approximately four million people, small-medium enterprises, and mining companies in the northwestern part of the country.

She added: The construction of the new power plant will help to improve TANESCOs financial sustainability arising from the decommissioning of the diesel-based power plants in the Kagera Region. The economic benefits derived from the supply of affordable power will be immense. We can expect to see marked improvement in the quality of life for people in the Kagera region and in Tanzania more broadly. These tremendous gains will contribute to building a more competitive economy in Tanzania, under the leadership of President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

Ambassador Nabil Hajlaoui said: We have heard President SamiaSuluhus message. She aims to generate 5 gigawatts of electricity by 2025. France is ready to be part of this journey by investing in power generation and transmission projects to meet the rapidly growing electricity demand, while reducing the carbon intensity of its energy mix.

AFD Country Director Celine Robert noted: We are delighted with the signing of this project, which is fully in line with international climate objectives and AFDs strong commitments in that regard. This investment will have major impact on economic development and on population well-being as the infrastructure will answer the power needs of 3 to 4 million people. This signing represents an important milestone and confirms that the cooperation between Government and AFD is deepening.

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European Union, and France invest $300 million in Tanzanias ... - African Development Bank

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Global Hackathon : Strengthening Dialogue and Cooperation ... - Friedrich Naumann Foundation

In the eyes of the European Union, Taiwan is a thriving democracy, a like-minded partner, an open and dynamic economy, an attractive destination for investment and an unbeatable producer of cutting-edge technology that keeps the modern world running.

But despite lucrative trade ties and shared core values, the EU does not recognise Taiwan as an independent, sovereign nation.

Why is that?

According to customary international law, a country must meet four essential criteria in order to attain statehood: a defined territory, a settled population, a functioning government and the ability to engage in diplomatic relations, which effectively amounts to international recognition.

In practice, Taiwan, whose official name is the Republic of China (ROC), fulfils the first three requirements but falls woefully short in the fourth one: the island of almost 24 million citizens has diplomatic relations with only 12 countries, all of them small-sized, and the Holy See.

This lack of endorsement stems from the One China policy, a principle that recognises the People's Republic of China (PRC), based in the mainland and ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, as the sole, legitimate government of the country under the name of China.

The One China policy is today followed by the vast majority of the international community, including the EU institutions and its 27 member states, and its history dates all the way back to World War II.

Watch the video above to find out more.

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Explained: Why the EU doesn't consider Taiwan a sovereign country - Euronews

The European Union will launch an 11th wave of sanctions on Russia and seek to crack down on efforts to evade economic penalties introduced in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a top EU official told CNBC Thursday.

"Europe has rolled out 10 packages of sanctions. We will have another package," Mairead McGuinness, EU commissioner for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union, told CNBC's Joumanna Bercetche at the International Monetary Fund's spring meeting in Washington, D.C.

EU countries have been in talks about drawing up a fresh round of sanctions against Russia in recent weeks and McGuinness confirmed an 11th package of measures is on its way.

"Our information is that the sanctions are working, and we will be doing more but we need to look at full implementation," McGuinness said. "What Russia is being deprived of is both the finance and the technologies to reinvent their war machine, and they are having problems on the battlefield."

"We have to make sure that they don't find ways around our sanctions, and I make the point repeatedly that the deeper our sanctions the more impactful they are, the more Russia will look for those ways whether it's other countries or different bank accounts to circumvent."

McGuinness said that as well as coming up with further sanctions on Moscow, Brussels would also seek to ensure sanctions are implemented "effectively" so that it becomes harder for individuals and entities to circumvent them.

"We have to make sure they don't find ways around our sanctions," McGuinness said. "I make the point repeatedly that the more deeper our sanctions, the more impactful they are."

She added, "Don't underestimate the efforts that Russia will make with its pals globally to get around our sanctions theyre affecting the Russian economy, theyre affecting the Russian war machine."

McGuinness was also asked whether the EU will look to penalize countries that aid Russia in evading sanctions with new legislation.

The U.S. Treasury Department last year published a list of countries helping Russia circumvent sanctions, which included Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

McGuinness said the bloc was instead focused on targeting individuals and entities.

"We're changing our legislation to look at individuals who are involved in sanctions intervention," McGuinness said. "Certainly, when it comes to people or entities that are breaking the law, we would see it that's when we would take action."

Some countries, including Estonia and France, have called on the EU to sanction Moldovan and Georgian oligarchs allegedly working to help Russia destabilize Ukraine.

McGuinness said the EU was working with the U.S., U.K., Canada and Japan, among other allies, to ensure the sanctions on Russia are implemented effectively and gather intelligence on the country's attempts to evade sanctions.

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EU will issue fresh wave of sanctions to stop Russia reinventing their war machine, official says - CNBC

Romanias close ties with Moldova are a strategic asset in the new European security environment.

Charles Michel, the European Council President, traveled to Bucharest in March for his first official meeting in three and a half years with the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis. The Romanian head of state took the opportunity to call on the European Union (EU) to adopt a new sanctions regime against pro-Russian entities and individuals seeking to derail Moldovas path toward EU accession.

In a press conference following the talks, Iohannis stated that Russian aggression is not limited to the war in Ukraine but extends to hybrid activities designed to block Moldovas path to membership and European integration. While Moldovas government seeks a Euroatlanticist future, Russia says that its future course must be Eurasian.

Russia has used Moldova as a punchbag for years, and still illegally occupies a swath of its territory. But in recent months, the Kremlin has stepped up its campaign. It has withheld gas supplies, mobilized political proxies to stage anti-government protests, and exploited Moldovas deeply entrenched ideological and ethnic differences with sophisticated disinformation and propaganda. It has also been accused of seeking to engineer a coup and of nurturing covert pro-Russian networks among opposition parties.

This is troubling for Romania, which has intimate ties to Moldova, not least through its language which is spoken by about three-quarters of Moldovans. About 10% of Moldovans live in Romania, and a third have a passport.

Its not therefore an issue that Romanias leaders could ignore, even if they wanted to. Romania has been making a conscious effort to ensure that Moldovas EU aspirations are at the forefront of the EU foreign policy agenda alongside the war in Ukraine. The focus of the European Council summit was rightly on providing Ukraine with 1m rounds of artillery ammunition. But it was at Romanias initiative that the 27 EU member states asked the European Commission to produce a support package for Moldova ahead of the next meeting in June. Details of the package have not yet been released.

The framework currently used for EU engagement with Moldova is of limited use to confront Russias threat. The EU-Moldova Association Agreement, signed in 2014, establishes foundations for stronger political association and economic integration. However, the scope for political and security cooperation is narrow.

Russias all-out invasion of Ukraine, on Moldovas eastern border, has prompted the EU to reassess its approach to ensure the stabilization and security of its eastern neighborhood. Last summer, the European Council decided to grant Moldova EU candidate status together with Ukraine. Germanys Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, expressed his support for the defense and security of Moldovas sovereignty and territorial integrity in a trilateral meeting in Bucharest in April 2022 with the leaders of Romania and Moldova.

But the overall response has been far from adequate. The EU is failing to meet the moment. While Moldova says it is penetrated by FSB agents and held to ransom by Russian gas suppliers, the bloc is focusing, very literally, on technicalities.

The point was rammed home in a none-too-subtle manner by the Austrian Foreign Minister, Karoline Edtstadler, who said during a recent visit to Moldova with seven of her European counterparts that there can be no shortcuts.

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The rules are rules argument might be fine at another time. But it hardly takes a master strategist to understand that with Russian cruise missiles taking shortcuts over Moldovan territory, the situation is more urgent.

NATO seems to have grasped this. Even before Russia sent its tanks across the border in 2022, the alliance chose Romania, its reliable and strategically-important regional partner, as the home to a new battlegroup under NATOs Enhanced Forward Presence. Allied aircraft use Romanian bases to patrol and reconnoiter the Black Sea region. The decision had to be made quickly and it was.

From Moldovas perspective, the Russian hybrid threat means that there can be no alternative but to pursue EU accession, and swiftly. Moldovas President Maia Sandu has described EU membership as the only way to ensure her countrys survival as a free and prosperous state.

Romania shares this perspective. The Romanian Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciuc, stated that his country would continue to be an active promoter of Moldovas accession to the EU in an official meeting with his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, in Stockholm on April 3. Romanias outlook now needs to be heard with more respect than previously. As an EU member state with an intimate understanding of Moldova and the challenges it faces on its European path, Romania is central to how the EU navigates the new security situation in its eastern neighborhood.

It is of course important to maintain respect for the meritocratic procedure of the EU enlargement process, but sometimes events intervene. The security situation now calls for pragmatism and flexibility on the part of the EU to provide Moldova with certainty over its future place in Europe. Moldovas pro-European choice both within its current government and its population as a whole is by no means a foregone conclusion. Pro-Russian forces may very well return to power.

Romanias nuanced understanding of Russias security threat in the region could allow it to act as a mentor to Moldova, continuing to work closely with EU officials to aid its government, channel aid, ensure its delivery, and secure the administration against the Kremlins hybrid threats like the weaponization of corruption.

Most of all, the EU should understand and act as a matter of urgency on the critical issue there is competition for Moldovas future against a nasty, militaristic power with utter indifference for Moldovas 2.5 million people. That point would best be made by a significant gesture from Brussels. Quite what form that should take is a matter for discussion. The EU might start by asking for Romanias advice.

Hugo Blewett-Mundy is a Central and Eastern Europe commentator and consultant.

Europes Edgeis CEPAs online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or viewsof the institutions they representor the Center for European Policy Analysis.

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CEPA's online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America.

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Romania Gets Moldova (and the EU Doesn't) - Center for European Policy Analysis