by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken landed on a remote African island chain on Monday, kicking off a four-nation tour of the continent aimed at showcasing the Biden administration’s continued interest in Africa amid major conflicts in the Middle East. and Europe.
A cool Atlantic breeze blew through the dusty port of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, as Blinken noted that facilities there had been expanded and modernized with nearly $55 million in U.S. aid, turning it into what he called “a gateway to “Much stronger entry into Africa.” for us and for so many other countries.” That project was completed more than a decade ago, but more U.S. development funds were on the way, he said.
Although his diplomacy included a fuel stop on the way to the continent, Blinken’s visit to the small island more than 400 miles off the western coast of Senegal helped signal the United States’ interest in Africa’s well-being. Blinken praised Cape Verde as a model of democracy and stability.
After Cape Verde, Blinken will travel to Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola. US officials said she would address a range of issues at her stops, including conflict prevention and political stability after military coups in several countries in recent years.
Despite their intense focus on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Biden administration officials said they remained determined to strengthen ties with African nations, which have enormous economic potential and are a site of great power competition with China. and Russia. Africa is expected to be home to approximately a quarter of the world’s population by 2050.
Blinken is making his fourth visit to sub-Saharan Africa as Secretary of State. A parade of other top administration officials also visited the continent over the past year, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and first lady Jill Biden.
But President Biden has yet to fulfill a promise he made in 2022 to visit the continent, raising questions about the depth of his commitment, despite what Biden said at a US-Africa leaders summit in Washington in December 2022 that the United States was “all committed” to the future of Africa.
Despite the region’s myriad challenges, Biden officials said Blinken intended to focus on optimistic issues such as economic development and cultural ties. In Ivory Coast, Blinken, a longtime soccer fan and player, plans to attend an African Cup of Nations match.
A statement from department spokesman Matthew Miller cited “climate, food and health security” as well as “our future-focused economic partnership,” including infrastructure investment and trade.
“We think this trip will hopefully be very positive,” Molly Phee, undersecretary of state for African affairs, said on a call with reporters last week. “Many times the news that comes from Africa is negative.”
Frustrated by several pessimistic questions about security threats and Chinese influence, she added: “You guys are putting me off because you’re not talking about any of the really fun, positive, forward-thinking things we’re going to do.”
But Phee admitted that political stability and regional conflict would loom large during Blinken’s stops in Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola. “However, we can never get away from issues of peace and security,” he said.
Africa has also required major crisis management by Biden officials due to a wave of coast-to-coast military coups, a brutal civil war in Sudan and violent radicalism in much of the north. U.S. efforts to reverse a July coup in Niger, whose president remains under house arrest, and to mediate a peaceful resolution in Sudan have reached a dead end.
A recent flare-up in tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo was so concerning that in November the White House sent the director of national intelligence, Avril D. Haines, Ms. Phee and other senior officials to mediate. Angola has also played a mediation role, which Blinken will discuss in its capital, Luanda.
The Biden administration has paid special attention to Angola. Austin traveled there in September, becoming the first U.S. defense secretary to visit the country. And Biden hosted Angolan President João Lourenço in the Oval Office in November.
One reason is that the United States is investing $250 million in a rail corridor that would allow minerals to be transported from landlocked parts of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Lobito, Angola’s Atlantic port, from where they can be shipped. to Europe and the rest of the world. USA. During Lourenço’s visit, Biden called the project “the largest US rail investment in Africa ever made.” The corridor helps the United States keep pace with China, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in Angola.
China’s reach extends to Cape Verde, where Blinken’s motorcade headed to a government palace past Chinese-language signs reflecting that the complex had been built by Beijing.
Oge Onubogu, director of the Africa program at the Wilson Center in Washington, said that on recent trips to the continent he encountered confusion about the U.S. agenda there. Africans, he said, clearly understood Russia’s “sometimes stealthy” security interests, which often take the form of mercenary military partnerships with governments. And China’s economic development projects, he claimed, created “visible infrastructure that people can actually see and feel.”
“But they are not very clear about what the United States is doing,” he said. Biden officials have tried to promote African democracy and condemned military coups in places like Niger and Gabon, she said, while working with authoritarian rulers elsewhere.
“The United States talks about strengthening democracy,” Onubogu added. “But at the same time, we maintain relationships with people who Africans consider not democratic leaders. That’s why I think we have difficulties with messages.”
Despite public alarms raised by security analysts, Biden officials bristle at persistent questions about how the United States is countering China’s huge investments in a continent that increasingly supplies it with oil, minerals and other natural resources. . Blinken will arrive in Ivory Coast days after the visit of China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi.
“Frankly, you are the ones presenting this as a soccer match between the United States and China,” Phee told reporters last week.
He added: “If China did not exist, we would be fully committed to Africa. “Africa is important in its own right and it is important to American interests.”
