expo displaying a large number of its military hardware, Defence Ministry sources told PTI here.They said the Chinese are also offering soft loans to the African nations for buying its military hardware.

“It is being seen as an effort to expand its ties with the countries in the African region,” they said, adding China has been investing heavily in expanding ties with the African nations for getting access to their natural resources such as minerals and oil.

Other countries that will take part in the largest defence exhibition of its kind in Africa include the US, France and the UK.

Indian companies such as BrahMos aerospace, Hindustan Aeronautics and Goa Shipyard are also participating in the show.

Global defence manufacturers such as Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Thales and EADS are also goinglooking for expanded trade and investment to meet its development needs by improving roads, communications and power and by generating more manufacturing jobs, Zuma told a forum of executives from the two countries.

Standard Bank, which is 20 percent owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said in an e-mailed statement the agreement “does not relate to any specific project at present”.

The talks between China Railway and the South African government are at an early stage and no funding is in place, Li Changjin said at a forum in Beijing, according to Bloomberg.

Ahead of the 2010 soccer World Cup, South Africa launched the initial phase of the continent’s first high-speed urban train, which cost 24 billion rand.

South Africa’s transport minister Sibusiso Ndebele in April proposed the construction of