Biden aims to narrow trust gap with U.S. Africa leader summit
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is set to play host to dozens of African leaders in Washington this week as the White House looks to narrow a gaping trust gap with Africa one that has grown — wider over years of frustration about America’s com-mitment to the continent.
In the lead-up to the threeday U.S-Africa Leaders Summit that begins Tuesday, Biden administration officials played down their increasing concern about the clout of China and Russia in Africa, which is home to more than 1.3 billion people. Instead, administration officials 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,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about the shadow that China and Russia cast on the meet- ings. “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.”
To that end, White House officials said that “major deliverables and initiatives” — diplomatic speak for big announcements — will be peppered throughout the meetings. previewed The one White major House summit announcement on Friday, saying that Biden would use the gathering to declare his support for adding the African Union as a perma- nent member of the Group of 20 nations.
The summit will be the big- gest international gathering in Washington since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Local officials are warning residents to brace for road blocks and inten- sified security as 49 invited heads of states and leaders — and Biden — whiz around the city.
Talks are expected to center on the coronavirus, cli- mate change, the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Africa, trade and more, according to White House officials. 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 — a follow-up to the first such gath- ering held eight years ago by President Barack Obama — Biden has an opportunity to assuage concerns in Africa about whether the U.S. is serious about tending to the relationship.
Biden’s effort to draw Afri- can 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 nar- row commercial and geopolitical interests, under- mine transparency and openness.” The administration also argues that Russia, the preeminent arms dealer in Africa, views the continent as a permissive environment nected oligarchs for Kremlin-con- priand vate military companies to focus on fomenting instability for their own strategic and financial benefit.
Still, administration officials are emphasizing 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,” Molly Phee, assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters before the summit. “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.”