Europe and Africa’s failure to sign off on a new round of trade agreements dominated a summit meant to showcase a new partnership to counter China’s growing influence in Europe’s former colonies.

Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal’s president and the most outspoken African leader on the deals, known as Economic Partnership Agreements, said they risked causing a “seismic rupture” between the two continents. This came, he said, at a time when China was wooing African countries with loans, infrastructure projects and cheap goods.