Senegal is making full preparations to host Africa's first Olympic event with crucial support from China, and the country is expecting more cultural and sports cooperation with China, said Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko.
The 4th Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will take place from Oct 31 to Nov 13, 2026 in Dakar, capital of Senegal, bringing together the world's best young athletes for the first Olympic sporting event to be held on African soil, according to the International Olympics Committee (IOC).
In an interview with China Media Group (CMG) released on Friday, Sonko, who was in China for the 2025 Summer Davos, said all preparatory work is currently progressing in an orderly manner and highlighted China's support and cooperation.
"Senegal is making every effort to prepare for the Youth Olympic Games. Although we faced many difficulties at the beginning, the preparations are now proceeding in an orderly manner, and some of the projects benefited from the support and cooperation of China. I would like to thank China for providing nearly 90 training places for Senegalese athletes, allowing them to have two months of training in China. As the host country, we hope that Senegal can win as many medals as possible in this event. We also look forward to Chinese athletes performing well and showing their style in this event," said Sonko.
The prime minister expressed his sincere hope that this ground-breaking event would become an opportunity to inject new connotations and vitality into the cultural and sports cooperation between Senegal and China.
"I think there are more similarities between Senegalese and Chinese cultures than expected. We did not feel strange when we were in China. When we interacted with Chinese friends, we often felt a kind of intimacy and resonance. This cultural fit also laid a good humanistic foundation for the deepening of cooperation between the two sides. Many Senegalese students went to China for further studies, learning knowledge in many fields such as agriculture and emerging technologies. Chinese martial arts have a broad mass base in Senegal and are very popular. We hope to inject new connotations and vitality into the cultural and sports cooperation between Senegal and China," he said.
Senegal to host Africa's first Olympic event with China's support: PM
Attempts to curb China's scientific and technological advancement are futile, a fact that has already been proven, said Kishore Mahbubani, former permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations, in an interview aired Friday.
In an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, Mahbubani said he had stated this position in one of his articles published in the United States.
"Actually, I published an article, you know the two, I guess two leading journals in the United States on international relations. One is Foreign Affairs and the other is Foreign Policy. And last year I co-authored an article with two other co-authors, saying that all the efforts to stop China's scientific and technological development will fail. And it has failed always. You know, for example, the Soviet Union tried to prevent the spread of nuclear technology to China, China develops its own. The United States didn't want to share its technology on international space station with China. China develops its own space station. So clearly, efforts to stop China in the area of scientific innovation and technological development have failed. And so it'd be wiser for the West, including United States, to work with China other than to try and stop China seek development," he said.
Regarding China's progress on robots, Mahbubani said China is leading the world in the sector and hopes the country will share its expertise with the rest of the world.
"If there's one country that is preparing for the future well, it is China, because one in six human beings in the world is Chinese. But one in three robots in the world is Chinese, and one in two baby robots being born every day is Chinese. So China is producing far more robots than any other country is. So clearly it's preparing for the world of the future when we will have, for example, labor shortages, as you know, as you develop an aging society. So China is wisely investing in robots. But I hope that China will also share its learning and expertise with other countries. Also because the robots like that can also be helpful even to developing countries cause you can enhance the productivity of their populations, of their factories and so on so forth. So the world should be happy that China is leading the world in manufacturing, producing robots," he said.
Attempts to stop China's sci-tech development doomed to fail: former Singaporean diplomat
