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 put up to Donald Trump.
Biden is ready to reach within the Angolan capital, Luanda, on Monday, after a short cease within the West African nation of Cape Verde. The 2-day journey to Angola, many analysts say, represents a ultimate, determined try and fulfil a promise Biden made way back, and counter China’s increasing affect on the continent.
The anticipated go to, which was pushed back from October resulting from 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 vital minerals infrastructure challenge that’s set to see huge provides of cobalt and copper delivered to the West.
Right here’s what to learn about Biden’s Africa visit and why Lobito is necessary:
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 reveals 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 notice 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 package deal 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, informed Al Jazeera.
“This one would matter much less coming because it does on the very finish of a lame-duck presidency. Satirically, [an Africa trip] in all probability issues extra to Biden, who’s looking to determine a legacy in Africa…than for Africa, which is already making ready for his successor,” Hudson added.
Africa’s important 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 necessary strategic participant.
How has Biden approached ties with Africa to this point?
US affect on the continent has been waning for years, whilst China and Russia have strengthened their presence in a number of international locations.
China has since 2013 overtaken the US to change 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 received kicked out of Chad. That has left it struggling to discover a navy foothold within the Sahel area which has change into a hotspot of violence by a variety of armed teams.
In 2022, the White Home launched an ambitious Africa strategy document that shifted from the primary Trump administration’s give attention to commerce relations.
Fairly, 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 rapidly light as little action adopted.
A number of high officers, together with Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have visited African international locations at varied 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 international locations not less than twice as heads of state.
Why is Biden visiting now, and why Angola?
The go to to Luanda will see Biden give attention to an $800m US-backed railway challenge 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 challenge will see an present rail community within the Lobito Hall upgraded. That will 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 likely one of the world’s largest producers of copper and cobalt. The minerals are key parts of batteries that energy electrical automobiles, which the US and EU are desperate to develop extra of as demand for clear vitality provide chains grows.
Washington has offered a $550m mortgage to start out the challenge. The African Growth Financial institution and the Africa Finance Company are additionally concerned.
The rail line is about 1300km (800 miles) lengthy and can possible see extensions into mineral-rich areas in Zambia. Portuguese firm Trafigura is main a three-company consortium that may 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 through 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 international locations inside its enormous 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 spotlight the shut ties between Angola and the US.
At current, Luanda can also be taking part in a lead function in mediating a spat between the DRC and Rwanda, regarding ongoing violence in eastern Congo.
Angola was, till a number of years in the past, a heavy borrower from China. It has additionally been traditionally near Russia: Throughout Angola’s 27-year civil battle, the US and the previous Soviet Union backed rival sides, resulting in chilly ties between Luanda and Washington.
Nevertheless, the federal government of President Joao Lourenco, which has been in place since 2017, has favoured stronger ties with Washington. The 2 international locations 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 lately, in November 2023, Biden hosted President Lourenco on the White Home.
Nevertheless, analysts say Washington’s view of Lourenco’s authorities ignores alleged human rights violations below his watch. Lourenco is unpopular amongst many Angolans resulting from excessive residing prices, corruption, and mounting crackdowns on dissent. In June, authorities opened fireplace on protesters offended at inflation, killing eight folks within the central Huambo province. A number of others had been arrested in cities throughout the nation.
Analysts say Biden’s refusal to acknowledge these issues over alleged rights abuses is a stain on his legacy.
“Many observers imagine that Biden’s go to could inadvertently embolden an unpopular president,” stated Florindo Chivucute, director of Buddies of Angola, a gaggle advocating for stronger democratic values in Angola and based mostly 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 and 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 capable of accomplish among the different targets it set for itself.
The African Union was admitted as a everlasting member of the G20 in September 2023. Nevertheless, 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. Nevertheless, 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, specialists say.
The incoming administration will possible need to compete with Chinese language and Russian affect, and land entry to vital minerals, Tibor Nagy, a high envoy to Africa below the final Trump administration, informed the Reuters information company.
There, not less than, tasks just like the Lobito Railway might see sustained US funding. “This checks each packing containers,” Nagy stated, referring to the railway challenge.
