Biden fulfilling promise to visit Africa as US looks to counter China’s deepening influence in region

CNN —
President Joe Biden will fulfill a two-year promise to visit Africa as he departs Sunday night for Angola, a trip aimed at highlighting US investment in the continent under his watch in the face of China’s deepening inroads in the region.
Biden’s three-day visit to oil-rich Angola comes at the tail end of his presidency, as he’ll hand over power to President-elect Donald Trump in January. The trip provides Biden with another chance to cement relations with a key US partner in Africa even as the continent prepares for the return of Trump, who made disparaging comments about African countries in his first term.
When Biden lands in the capital of Luanda on Monday, it will mark the first time a sitting president has visited sub-Saharan Africa since 2015, when then-President Barack Obama visited Kenya and Ethiopia. It will also be the first time a US president has visited Angola, with which Biden has sought to shore up relations in recent years.
As he hosted African leaders in Washington for a 2022 summit, Biden vowed to visit the continent the following year but ultimately missed that deadline. He scheduled a trip to Angola for this October, which was postponed due to a pair of devastating hurricanes hitting the US.
Biden’s trip will highlight investments in the Lobito Corridor, an 800-mile railway project backed by the United States and Europe aiming to facilitate the transport of critical minerals from interior Africa to Angola’s western port for exporting.
The initiative is at the center of the Biden administration’s efforts to boost investment in Africa to blunt China’s growing influence in the region, which has outpaced that of the US. Beijing has poured billions of dollars into infrastructure projects across the continent over the last decade through its Belt and Road Initiative. In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $50 billion in financial support for the continent as well as military aid.
At the same time, Russia has tried to expand its influence in Africa. The head of US Africa Command warned Congress in March that Russia is aggressively working to expand its footing among African countries, leaving several “at the tipping point” of falling under its influence.
While China and Russia have made inroads in the continent, a senior administration official previewing the trip argued Biden “put us back on the field” by “offering this alternative” to China through US-backed investments.
“That is the choice that is now available to countries throughout the region, not looking at, ‘Do I have to accept Chinese investment with low standards and child labor and corruption – but do I have another offering to compare it to?’” the senior official said. “This is what President Biden’s wanted: to transform our relationship in the region, to offer a different – more – investment, but with higher standards.”
The Biden administration has sought to shift its strategy in Africa from one of development assistance and charity toward investment in specific countries, the senior official said. Officials suggested Biden’s team believes the policy will endure throughout future administrations.
“While, of course, I can’t speak for the next administration, I think there’s a lot of reason to assume that some of these initiatives will continue on,” a second senior administration official previewing the trip said, adding that the Lobito Corridor is “paying dividends for all of us.”
The US views Angola as a key partner, cooperating on economic, technological and scientific initiatives in the region, and Angola has played a key mediating role in the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
As he looked to highlight his commitment to Africa, Biden hosted Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço for an Oval Office meeting in 2023, touting American investments in the Lobito Corridor and solar energy projects.
“Simply put, a partnership between Angola and America is more important and more impactful,” Biden said.
Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço waits ahead of a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Luanda on January 25, 2024. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Biden departs for Africa on Sunday evening, and he will spend Monday through Wednesday in Angola, where he will have a bilateral meeting with Lourenço and meet with members of civil society.
Biden also will deliver remarks to “lay out both our shared history and highlight the growth and enduring strength of our relationships in Angola and across the continent,” the second senior administration official said.
The president will make new announcements, the official said, regarding a global health security partnership on infectious disease, agribusiness, security cooperation, and the preservation of Angola’s cultural heritage, including US support for Angola’s nomination of the Kwanza Corridor as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Officials declined to say whether this would be Biden’s last trip abroad as president. His travel to Africa comes on the heels of attending key summits in Brazil and Peru, where Trump’s influence was already felt among world leaders.
In an interview with The New York Times ahead of Biden’s visit to Angola, Lourenço said he is “ready to work” with Trump in the White House.
“We aren’t concerned with a change that has happened in the U.S. administration. This is not something dramatic,” Lourenço said. “It’s something normal in democracy. Powers come and go.”
He added, “He’s the one whom Angola and all the countries of the world will have to work with if they are to maintain relations with the United States.”