United States President Joe Biden is visiting Angola this week on his first-ever bilateral journey to Africa as president – weeks earlier than he leaves the publish to Donald Trump.
Biden is ready to reach within the Angolan capital, Luanda, on Monday, after a quick cease within the West African nation of Cape Verde. The 2-day journey to Angola, many analysts say, represents a closing, determined try to fulfil a promise Biden made way back, and counter China’s increasing affect on the continent.
The anticipated go to, which was pushed again from October as a consequence of Hurricane Milton, will see Biden go to the Lobito Port, which is on the coronary heart of US commerce relations with Angola. There, he’ll assess an ongoing essential minerals infrastructure undertaking that’s set to see huge provides of cobalt and copper delivered to the West.
Right here’s what to find out about Biden’s Africa go to and why Lobito is vital:
Why has President Biden not visited Africa?
Analysts say Biden’s failure to go to any African nation – besides Egypt for COP27 in November 2022 – till now exhibits that his administration has not prioritised the continent.
Biden first promised to go to Africa in December 2022, two years into his presidency – which some be aware was already too late.
He made the promise at a US-Africa leaders summit in Washington, the place 49 African leaders gathered. The US “is all in on Africa and all in with Africa”, Biden declared on the time. He additionally introduced a assist bundle of $55bn to the African Union.
The Biden administration has hosted a number of African leaders within the White Home, however the promised go to by no means materialised – till now.
“Presidential journeys to Africa are uncommon sufficient that they at all times matter,” Cameron Hudson, a senior Africa analyst on the US-based Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research, instructed Al Jazeera.
“This one would matter much less coming because it does on the very finish of a lame-duck presidency. Paradoxically, [an Africa trip] in all probability issues extra to Biden, who’s looking out to ascertain a legacy in Africa…than for Africa, which is already getting ready for his successor,” Hudson added.
Africa’s vital pure sources, quickly rising inhabitants of 1.3 billion, and sizeable voting energy within the United Nations – with 54 nation votes – make the continent an more and more vital strategic participant.
How has Biden approached ties with Africa thus far?
US affect on the continent has been waning for years, whilst China and Russia have strengthened their presence in a number of nations.
China has since 2013 overtaken the US to develop into Africa’s largest commerce companion. This yr, the US misplaced a serious spy base within the West African nation of Niger, and its military acquired kicked out of Chad. That has left it struggling to discover a army foothold within the Sahel area which has develop into a hotspot of violence by a variety of armed teams.
In 2022, the White Home launched an formidable Africa technique doc that shifted from the primary Trump administration’s concentrate on commerce relations.
Reasonably, the doc promised, the US would push for Africa to have management roles at worldwide platforms, together with everlasting seats on the United Nations Safety Council and membership of the G20. Analysts lauded the strategy as “trendy” and “formidable” on the time however enthusiasm for it shortly pale as little motion adopted.
A number of prime officers, together with Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have visited African nations at numerous instances.
In the meantime, Biden discovered time to journey elsewhere. He has visited the UK alone 5 instances, other than quite a few different visits to Europe, the Center East, Asia and Latin America.
In distinction, President Xi Jinping of China and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin have visited African nations at the very least twice as heads of state.
Why is Biden visiting now, and why Angola?
The go to to Luanda will see Biden concentrate on an $800m US-backed railway undertaking within the Lobito Hall. The passage is a strategic commerce route that connects the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia to Angola, which hosts the port of Lobito, positioned on the Atlantic Ocean.
Funded largely by the US and the European Union, the Lobito Atlantic Railway undertaking will see an current rail community within the Lobito Hall upgraded. That may enable for the sooner export of cobalt and copper, amongst different minerals, mined from the DRC’s Kolwezi mining city, to the West.
The DRC is among the world’s largest producers of copper and cobalt. The minerals are key elements of batteries that energy electrical autos, which the US and EU are desperate to develop extra of as demand for clear vitality provide chains grows.
Washington has supplied a $550m mortgage to start out the undertaking. The African Growth Financial institution and the Africa Finance Company are additionally concerned.
The rail line is about 1300km (800 miles) lengthy and can doubtless see extensions into mineral-rich areas in Zambia. Portuguese firm Trafigura is main a three-company consortium that can function the railway for 30 years below a concession settlement. In August, the corporate stated it shipped the primary container of minerals to the US by way of the Lobito Port.
Analysts say the US faces challenges within the hall. China has eyes on the area, too, and has already locked in a lot of the minerals that will theoretically be offered to Western nations inside its big Belt and Highway Initiative, notes researcher Wala Chabala in a paper for the Berlin-based assume tank, Africa Coverage Analysis Institute.
“Not solely are the Chinese language ubiquitously current on the African continent, however China is already far forward in constructing provide chains for cobalt, lithium and several other different important metals and minerals,” Chabala wrote.
In September, China’s state engineering company signed a concession settlement to function the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), one other railway line within the hall that hyperlinks central Zambia to the port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.
What does Biden’s go to imply for Angola?
US officers say the go to is supposed to focus on the shut ties between Angola and the US.
At current, Luanda can be enjoying a lead function in mediating a spat between the DRC and Rwanda, regarding ongoing violence in jap Congo.
Angola was, till just a few years in the past, a heavy borrower from China. It has additionally been traditionally near Russia: Throughout Angola’s 27-year civil conflict, the US and the previous Soviet Union backed rival sides, resulting in chilly ties between Luanda and Washington.
Nonetheless, the federal government of President Joao Lourenco, which has been in place since 2017, has favoured stronger ties with Washington. The 2 nations have deepened commerce relations and by 2023, US-Angola commerce totalled roughly $1.77bn. Angola is the US’s fourth-largest commerce companion in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2021, and extra not too long ago, in November 2023, Biden hosted President Lourenco on the White Home.
Nonetheless, analysts say Washington’s view of Lourenco’s authorities ignores alleged human rights violations below his watch. Lourenco is unpopular amongst many Angolans as a consequence of excessive dwelling prices, corruption, and mounting crackdowns on dissent. In June, authorities opened hearth on protesters indignant at inflation, killing eight folks within the central Huambo province. A number of others have been arrested in cities throughout the nation.
Analysts say Biden’s refusal to acknowledge these considerations over alleged rights abuses is a stain on his legacy.
“Many observers consider that Biden’s go to might inadvertently embolden an unpopular president,” stated Florindo Chivucute, director of Associates of Angola, a bunch advocating for stronger democratic values in Angola and primarily based in Luanda and Washington, DC.
“Whereas the US lags behind China when it comes to commerce and political affect in Angola, it shouldn’t compromise its core values of democracy and human rights in an try to catch up,” he stated.
What’s subsequent for US-Africa ties?
Whereas President Biden has lastly fulfilled his promise to go to Africa, his administration hasn’t been in a position to accomplish a number of the different objectives it set for itself.
The African Union was admitted as a everlasting member of the G20 in September 2023. Nonetheless, no African nation continues to be a everlasting member of the UNSC.
In September 2024, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield introduced that her nation would assist two everlasting UNSC seats for Africa. Nonetheless, she warned that these seats wouldn’t have veto energy, a place that many analysts criticised as a result of it could arrange a two-tier system – one for UNSC members with vetoes, and the second for these with out that energy.
A Trump presidency, in the meantime, is more likely to focus solely on commerce relations, because it did the primary time, consultants say.
The incoming administration will doubtless wish to compete with Chinese language and Russian affect, and land entry to essential minerals, Tibor Nagy, a prime envoy to Africa below the final Trump administration, instructed the Reuters information company.
There, at the very least, initiatives just like the Lobito Railway might see sustained US funding. “This checks each containers,” Nagy stated, referring to the railway undertaking.
