LUANDA, Angola — It may have been the image of President Biden’s seemingly jinxed journey to Angola.
Postponed in 2023 because of the wars within the Middle East.
Postponed once more in 2024 because of the catastrophic hurricanes in the south.
And on the one full day of the first-ever journey to Africa for Biden as president, the skies opened up, sending torrential rain down and flooding poorly drained streets.
It virtually halted the presidential and press convoy’s one-hour experience out of the capital Luanda for Biden to make a speech on the National Slavery Museum of Angola.
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Greg Palkot, Fox News’ senior overseas affairs correspondent, stands as President Biden delivers his tackle on the National Slavery Museum in Luanda, Angola. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)
Of course, all this got here in per week when different information was pounding down as laborious as that rain. First, Biden’s self-inflicted pardoning of son Hunter. A Manhattan homicide of a high government. The collapse of two governments of our most essential allies. And the continuing dramas surrounding Trump’s Cabinet picks.
But as Biden does, he made it, not daring to stroll up the slick marble steps to the museum itself, however standing at a podium dramatically positioned alongside the Atlantic coast with shafts of daylight piercing by the darkish clouds.
He spoke of the position the colonial masters performed in transport out hundreds to a lifetime of servitude, together with to the United States. Angola was a serious participant within the Atlantic slave commerce.
“It’s our obligation to face our historical past,” Biden famous, “the great, the unhealthy and the ugly.
But he additionally handled the actual motive for the journey — serving to the strategically-located southwestern African country of Angola regular itself to organize for the long run. By 2050, simply 25 years from now. Africa would be the most populous continent on the earth.
“In some ways, Africa’s success would be the world’s success. And I stated on the U.S.-Africa Summit in 2022, the United States is all in on Africa’s future,” Biden stated.
A poster displaying President Biden and Angola’s President João Lourenco throughout a welcome ceremony at Catumbela Airport in Angola Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
To take care of the current, Biden made a shock announcement of $1 billion in U.S. humanitarian support to assist these displaced in Africa by droughts and excessive climate.
Earlier within the day, in a one-on-one assembly with Angolan President João Lourenco, Biden handled the long run. There was a giant give attention to the Lobito Corridor, a rail and infrastructure venture backed with $4 billion from the U.S. It is geared toward bringing to an Angolan port vital minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia and agricultural merchandise and different industrial items from Angola.
Street scenes in Angola’s capital metropolis of Luanda. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)
“We work collectively to mobilize extra capital,” Biden declared, “to construct extra infrastructure, to assist make these options actual, to assist Africa paved the way.”
Critics scoffed that this was only a “too little, too late” try and catch up with China, which for years has been busy with infrastructure and different tasks all throughout Africa.
In an interview with Fox News, White House National Security communications director John Kirby pushed again, saying. “It’s about them (the Angolans) catching up and maintaining and be extra concerned … by way of bringing product to market.”
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Greg Palkot’s press credential consists of an Angola Soviet-style flag. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)
An anticipated point out of an expanded U.S. navy position in Angola didn’t materialize. The U.S. already sends a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in navy support to the nation. There’s new discuss of a U.S. base there to counter the Russian navy’s more and more lively presence on the continent.
But the “elephant” that did lurk at each assembly and gathering was the truth that Biden is now a really lame-duck president and the way incoming President-elect Trump, who by no means made a visit to Africa throughout his first time period in workplace, who even made derisory feedback about sure international locations there, would deal with all of it.
In a current interview, the Angolan president stated he would work with whoever is president.
President Biden stands for nationwide anthems with Angola President João Lourenco on the presidential palace within the capital Luanda, Angola Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
And, really, in an interview with Fox News, former Trump Africa envoy J. Peter Pham advised us he thought lots of the tasks may survive, particularly if China feels a sting.
He added, nonetheless, “I do assume the brand new administration will ask some very robust questions on our investments on the continent, the place they go and whether or not it’s the perfect return on capital.”
Prosperity and poverty within the capital metropolis of Luanda. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)
On the final day of his journey, Biden inspected the Lobito rail hub, the place the large venture converges. In a roundtable with different regional leaders, after he famous he was an Amtrak rail fan, he was seen closing his eyes and holding his head in his palms as if he had been sleeping, very similar to he most likely dozed on these commuter rides for many years as a senator between Washington and Delaware.
Most in Angola appeared to assume, nonetheless, the 82-year-old president performed his position pretty properly in what was known as his “world finale.”
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The take a look at will come when it’s seen if any of the advantages from these tasks trickle down past the super-rich in oil-rich Angola, to the principally younger Angolans who’re determined for a life and residing.
“Just the truth that an American is coming to Angola is an effective factor,” one Luanda resident advised us.
Despite unhealthy timing and unhealthy information elsewhere … lots of people right here have hopes.
