There’s been a flurry of diplomatic activity between China and Senegal over the past week, including a phone call between Presidents Macky Sall and Xi Jinping along with a meeting between President Sall and Beijing’s envoy to Dakar Xiao Han. No doubt this week’s shipment of COVID-19 vaccines was on their agenda but they also likely discussed logistics for the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit.

Now, there’s word that the summit will probably be a hybrid online-offline event, according to the highly-regarded Beijing-based Panda Paw Dragon Claw blog. Given that President Xi has not traveled abroad since the beginning of the outbreak, it seems improbable at this stage that he would go to Dakar. However, since Foreign Minister Wang Yi and China’s highest-ranking foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi, have both visited Africa this year during separate trips, it’s likely they’ll be there in person.