LAGOS, Nigeria — President Joe Biden arrived in Angola on Monday, on a delayed trip to Africa, his first and only visit to the continent during the final months of his term in office.
Biden’s trip is the first by an American president since Barack Obama traveled to Kenya and Ethiopia in 2015.
Initially scheduled in October, the President arrived in the West African island of Cabo Verde on Monday, before travelling on to Angola.
This end-of-term effort has widely been seen as partly a response to the long-established economic influence of China, whose trade ties and investments over the last few decades have dwarfed those of the U.S.
The trip fulfills a promise made by Biden to visit the continent during the Africa leaders summit in Washington DC two years ago. It is also the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited either Cabo Verde – a U.S. ally and one of the few stable democracies in West and Central Africa, or Angola – an oil-rich former Portuguese colony that is increasingly an important U.S. partner in the region.
But the trip comes amid the controversy of his decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, of gun and tax convictions and comes at the end of his presidency, less than two months before former President Trump returns to office.
“The message implied by the timing is hard to miss,” said Ken Opalo is assistant professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. “Biden had the time and stamina to visit lots of places during his four years in office, but only found time as a lame duck to visit the region. I think the timing reflects Africa’s overall strategic insignificance from the perspective of Washington foreign policy insiders.”
Biden vowed to put Africa at the centre of U.S. foreign policy and raised expectations for African representation at global institutions like the U.N. Security Council. But many of those expectations have largely not been met, said Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“When the history is written on Biden’s Africa policy, it will be defined by a set of very ambitious expectations for remaking the global order and making sure that Africa is at the centre of that remaking.”
While the African Union, the body representing 55 member states, was given a permanent membership of the G20, an African country has yet to be given a permanent seat at the U.N. Security Council, reflecting poorly on Biden’s commitments, Hudson said.
“We have not seen Africa given a seat at the table,” he said. “We have not seen the reforms of global institutions like the U.N. Security Council or the World Bank that the president has promised and that Washington is in a unique position to help bring about.”
In Angola Biden is expected to announce a number of key trade investments . He is also due to visit the National Slavery museum there, drawing on the shared history of both countries. Hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans were taken from Angola to the United States, during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, with the first documented arrival recorded in Virginia in 1619.
But the cornerstone of Biden’s visit to Angola is the Lobito Corridor, a U.S. backed 1,300-kilometer freight rail line, running from Angola to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), connecting to existing links from Zambia to the coast of Tanzania in East Africa. It is seen by officials as a potential US policy success as the corridor eases the export of key minerals like cobalt and copper—resources critical for renewable energy and advanced technology.
The mineral rich region has become the focus of intense competition for access, between China and Western countries. The U.S. says it has raised more than $4 billion investment on the project, from public and private funds.
Biden administration officials sought to improve relations with African countries after Trump’s first term in 2017, following the former president’s disparaging remarks of African countries and an immigration ban from Muslim majority countries.
But while senior Biden administration officials made far more visits to African countries than their predecessors, reports of growing competition between the US and countries like China, the UAE and Turkey do not reflect the reality, Ken Opalo said.
“There is no competition. China has spent almost 20 years forging impactful economic ties with almost all African countries – from trade to financing for infrastructure – while the United States and its European allies mostly viewed the continent through the lens of aid and humanitarian crises.”
Recent US attempts to reset its approach in Africa could be impacted by Trump’s second presidency, while some analysts anticipate his administration is likely to favour economic investments over humanitarian assistance.
Transcript:
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Joe Biden is on his way to Africa for his first and last trip to the continent as president. Later today, he’ll land in the West African island nation of Cabo Verde, then head to oil-rich Angola. It’s the first time a U.S. president has visited either country, and it’s part of America’s effort to counter China’s influence on the continent. NPR’s Emmanuel Akinwotu joins us from Lagos.
So early on in his presidency, Biden committed to visiting Africa. Now he’s finally going. So, Emmanuel, I mean, how significant is his trip?
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Well, it’s both significant and telling. It’s actually only the second trip to Africa by a U.S. president in a decade, since Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia in 2015, but it’s also Biden’s last – likely his last foreign trip, too, and comes at a point when he’s at his weakest. I spoke to Cameron Hudson, who’s a senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
CAMERON HUDSON: That a continent of 1.4 billion people hasn’t seen the U.S. president in nearly a decade, I think is a sad commentary on where Africa ranks. And I think the president going with only 60 days left in his term of office is also a commentary on where Africa has ranked.
AKINWOTU: President Biden set out to strengthen U.S. ties in Africa and make the continent a more important part of U.S. policy, but he leaves with really only a few examples of how U.S. policy has significantly changed.
MARTÍNEZ: So why has President Biden decided to visit these two countries in particular?
AKINWOTU: Well, firstly, Cabo Verde, because it’s one of the few relatively stable democracies in Africa and, of course, during the time where there’s been several coups and concerning constitutional changes. And then there’s Angola, which has its human rights concerns, but it’s seen by the U.S. as a key policy success.
MARTÍNEZ: And why is that?
AKINWOTU: Well, it has a major U.S.-financed project called the Lobito Corridor. It’s this 1,300-kilometer rail line which runs from Angola through the mineral-rich central African countries, like the Democratic Republic of Congo, and then they connect to existing rail lines through Zambia and Tanzania. And this line is key to exporting minerals used in green energy and technology, like cobalt and copper, that the U.S. is basically competing for access to with more established players like China.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So that’s the broader context, America trying to counter its rivals’ influence on this continent.
AKINWOTU: Exactly. And it brings us to really the crux of U.S. policy in Africa, which is the economic and political ties of China, and to a less extent Russia, you know, really growing in the continent and the U.S. trying to challenge that.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, there’s going to be a new president. Donald Trump’s about to return to office. So what could that mean for U.S. interests in Africa?
AKINWOTU: Well, Biden officials really tried to improve relations after Trump. You know, Trump disparaged African countries and essentially showed a cursory interest, really, in African affairs. So with Biden, he led a major change in tone, but there wasn’t really that much to show for it. Now we’re going back to a Trump presidency and during a really challenging and volatile period, especially with the war in Sudan. So we’ll have to wait and see how his administration grapples with that.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That’s NPR’s Emmanuel Akinwotu. Thank you very much.
AKINWOTU: Thank you.
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