Biden fulfilling promise to visit Africa as US looks to counter China's deepening influence in region [View all]
Source: CNN Politics
Updated 8:22 AM EST, Sun December 1, 2024
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.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/01/politics/biden-promise-visit-africa/index.html
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