Geostrategic Daily

RFI Afrique · 20 September 2026

Ethiopia's new airport whets international appetites

US Secretary of State for African Affairs Franck Garcia visited the site of the future Bishoftu international airport on 6 September. The United States and China are competing over financing for the mega-project. The estimated total cost is more than $12 billion.

Why it matters: This is a case of great-power competition over infrastructure financing, a central geoeconomics theme.

chokepoint infrastructure · great power rivalry

Record

Source
RFI Afrique (tier 1)
Published
20 September 2026
Link
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/afrique-%C3%A9conomie/20260920-le-nouvel-a%C3%A9roport-d-%C3%A9thiopie-aiguise-les-app%C3%A9tits-internationaux
Content depth
full
Regions
americas, asia-pacific, sub-saharan-africa
Subregions
east-africa-horn, us, china
Actors
United States, China, Ethiopia
Edition
2026-09-21

Grounding

Verbatim spans from the source text that support the summary above.

Le secrétaire d’État américain aux Affaires africaines, Franck Garcia, s’est rendu le 6 septembre dernier sur le chantier du futur aéroport international de Bishoftu
les États-Unis et la Chine se livrent une bataille d’influence autour du financement du méga projet
Coût total estimé : plus de 12 milliards de dollars.