President Joe Biden seeks to narrow the wide trust gap with Africa as he readies to host scores of African leaders in Washington this week.
In the lead-up to the three-day U.S-Africa Leaders Summit that begins on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, Biden administration officials have tried to put the focus on their efforts to improve cooperation with African leaders.
“This summit is an opportunity to deepen the many partnerships we have on the African continent. We will focus on our efforts to strengthen these partnerships across a wide range of sectors spanning from businesses to health to peace and security, but our focus will be on Africa next week.”
White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre
The summit will be the biggest international gathering in Washington since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local officials warned residents to brace for road blocks and intensified security as 49 invited leaders and Biden move around the city.
According to White House officials, discussions are expected to center on the coronavirus, climate change, the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Africa, trade and more.
Biden is set to deliver remarks at a U.S.-Africa business forum, hold small group meetings with leaders, host a leaders’ dinner at the White House and take part in other sessions with leaders during the gathering.
Biden has spent much of his first two years in office trying to assuage doubters on the international stage about American leadership after four years of Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.
With this summit which is a follow-up to the first of such gathering held eight years ago by President Barack Obama, Biden has an opportunity to satisfy concerns in Africa about whether the U.S. is serious about tending to the relationship.
Biden’s effort to draw African nations closer to the U.S. comes at a complicated moment, as his administration has made plain that it believes that Chinese and Russian activity in Africa is a serious concern to U.S. and African interests.
In its sub-Saharan Africa strategy unveiled in August, the Biden administration warned that China, which has pumped billions into African energy, infrastructure and other projects, sees the region as an arena where Beijing can “challenge the rules-based international order, advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests, undermine transparency and openness.”
However, administration officials emphasized that concerns about China and Russia will not be central to the talks.
“The United States prioritizes our relationship with Africa for the sake of our mutual interests and our partnership in dealing with global challenges. We are very conscious, again, of the Cold War history, we’re conscious, again, of the deleterious impact of colonialism on Africa, and we studiously seek to avoid repeating some of the mistakes of those earlier eras.”
Molly Phee, Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs
Biden To Participate With Leaders On Food Security
President Biden is expected to participate with leaders in a session on promoting food security and food systems resilience.
Africa has been disproportionately impacted by the global rise in food prices that has been caused in part by the drop in shipments from major grain exporter, Ukraine.
“One of the unique aspects of this summit is the collateral damage that the Russian war has inflicted on Africa in terms of food supply and the diversion of development assistance to Ukraine. The opportunity costs of the invasion have been very high in Africa.”
John Stremlau, visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Four countries that were suspended from the African Union; Guinea, Sudan, Mali and Burkina Faso were not invited to the summit because coups in those nations led to unconstitutional changes in power.
The White House also did not invite the East African nation of Eritrea; Washington does not have full diplomatic relations with the country.
Analysts opined that African leaders will be looking for Biden to make some major commitments during the summit, including announcing his first presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa, efforts to bolster the continent’s economy through private sector investment and trade and more.
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