CNN
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President Joe Biden will fulfill a two-year promise to go to Africa as he departs Sunday evening for Angola, a visit aimed toward highlighting US funding within the continent beneath his watch within the face of China’s deepening inroads within the area.
Biden’s three-day go to to oil-rich Angola comes on the tail finish of his presidency, as he’ll hand over energy to President-elect Donald Trump in January. The journey supplies Biden with one other probability to cement relations with a key US companion in Africa even because the continent prepares for the return of Trump, who made disparaging feedback about African international locations in his first time period.
When Biden lands within the capital of Luanda on Monday, it’s going to mark the primary time a sitting president has visited sub-Saharan Africa since 2015, when then-President Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia. It can even be the primary time a US president has visited Angola, with which Biden has sought to shore up relations lately.
As he hosted African leaders in Washington for a 2022 summit, Biden vowed to go to the continent the next yr however in the end missed that deadline. He scheduled a visit to Angola for this October, which was postponed as a consequence of a pair of devastating hurricanes hitting the US.
Biden’s journey will spotlight investments within the Lobito Corridor, an 800-mile railway undertaking backed by the United States and Europe aiming to facilitate the transport of crucial minerals from inside Africa to Angola’s western port for exporting.
The initiative is on the middle of the Biden administration’s efforts to spice up funding in Africa to blunt China’s rising affect within the area, which has outpaced that of the US. Beijing has poured billions of {dollars} into infrastructure initiatives throughout the continent over the past decade by way of its Belt and Road Initiative. In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $50 billion in monetary help for the continent in addition to army assist.
At the identical time, Russia has tried to increase its affect in Africa. The head of US Africa Command warned Congress in March that Russia is aggressively working to increase its footing amongst African international locations, leaving a number of “on the tipping level” of falling beneath its affect.
While China and Russia have made inroads within the continent, a senior administration official previewing the journey argued Biden “put us again on the sector” by “providing this different” to China by way of US-backed investments.
“That is the selection that’s now obtainable to international locations all through the area, not , ‘Do I’ve to just accept Chinese funding with low requirements and little one labor and corruption – however do I’ve one other providing to check it to?’” the senior official mentioned. “This is what President Biden’s needed: to rework our relationship within the area, to supply a unique – extra – funding, however with larger requirements.”
The Biden administration has sought to shift its technique in Africa from one in all improvement help and charity towards funding in particular international locations, the senior official mentioned. Officials urged Biden’s crew believes the coverage will endure all through future administrations.
“While, after all, I can’t communicate for the following administration, I feel there’s quite a lot of motive to imagine that a few of these initiatives will proceed on,” a second senior administration official previewing the journey mentioned, including that the Lobito Corridor is “paying dividends for all of us.”
The US views Angola as a key companion, cooperating on financial, technological and scientific initiatives within the area, and Angola has performed a key mediating function within the battle within the japanese Democratic Republic of Congo.
As he seemed to spotlight his dedication to Africa, Biden hosted Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço for an Oval Office assembly in 2023, touting American investments within the Lobito Corridor and photo voltaic vitality initiatives.
“Simply put, a partnership between Angola and America is extra essential and extra impactful,” Biden mentioned.
Biden departs for Africa on Sunday night and makes a refueling cease in Sal, Cape Verde, the place he’ll meet with the nation’s prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva. Biden arrives in Luanda, Angola, on Monday and can meet with US embassy workers and their households.
On Tuesday, Biden will maintain a bilateral assembly with Lourenço and ship remarks on the National Slavery Museum, which is situated close to the positioning the place slaves have been as soon as shipped to the US. The president will lay out “each our shared historical past and spotlight the expansion and enduring energy of {our relationships} in Angola and throughout the continent,” the second senior administration official mentioned.
The president will journey to Lobito on Wednesday, touring the Lobito Port Terminal and visiting the Carrinho Food Processing Factory. He can be set to satisfy with regional leaders throughout a Lobito Corrridor Trans-Africa Summit earlier than departing for the US on Wednesday night.
The president will make new bulletins, the official mentioned, concerning a worldwide well being safety partnership on infectious illness, agribusiness, safety cooperation, and the preservation of Angola’s cultural heritage, together with US help for Angola’s nomination of the Kwanza Corridor as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Officials declined to say whether or not this could be Biden’s final journey overseas as president. His journey to Africa comes on the heels of attending key summits in Brazil and Peru, the place Trump’s affect was already felt amongst world leaders.
In an interview with The New York Times forward of Biden’s go to to Angola, Lourenço mentioned he’s “able to work” with Trump within the White House.
“We aren’t involved with a change that has occurred within the U.S. administration. This is just not one thing dramatic,” Lourenço mentioned. “It’s one thing regular in democracy. Powers come and go.”
He added, “He’s the one whom Angola and all of the international locations of the world should work with if they’re to keep up relations with the United States.”
This story has been up to date with extra developments.
