Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken landed on a remote African island chain on Monday, kicking off a four-nation tour of the continent to demonstrate the Biden administration's continued interest in Africa amid major conflicts in the Middle East and Europe.
A cool Atlantic breeze blew across the dusty harbor in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, as Mr. Blinken noted that the facility there had been expanded and modernized with nearly $55 million in U.S. aid, making it what he “a much stronger gateway into Africa for us and for so many other countries.” That project was completed more than a decade ago, but more U.S. development funding is on the way, he said.
Although his diplomacy involved a refueling stop en route to the continent, Mr. Blinken's visit to the tiny island more than 400 miles off Senegal's west coast helped signal U.S. interest in Africa's well-being. Mr. Blinken praised Cape Verde as a model of democracy and stability.
After Cape Verde, Mr Blinken will travel to Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola. U.S. officials said he would address a range of topics during his stops, including conflict prevention and political stability following military coups in several countries in recent years.
Despite their intense focus on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Biden administration officials said they remained committed to strengthening ties with African countries, which have enormous economic potential and are a theater of great power competition with China and Russia. It is estimated that Africa will be home to around a quarter of the world's population by 2050.
Mr. Blinken is traveling to sub-Saharan Africa for the fourth time as secretary of state. A parade of other top government officials also visited the continent last year, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and first lady Jill Biden.
But President Biden has not yet followed through on a promise made in 2022 to visit the continent, raising doubts about the depth of his commitment – despite Mr Biden speaking at a summit of US and African leaders in Washington in December 2022 said that America was “all in” about the future of Africa.
Despite the region's myriad challenges, Biden officials said Mr. Blinken wanted to focus on positive issues such as economic development and cultural ties. In Ivory Coast, Mr. Blinken, a long-time soccer player and fan, plans to attend an Africa Cup of Nations game.
A statement from ministry spokesman Matthew Miller cited “climate, food and health security” as well as “our forward-looking economic partnership,” including infrastructure investment and trade.
“We think this trip will hopefully be very positive,” Molly Phee, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said on a call with reporters last week. “The news from Africa is often negative.”
Frustrated by several depressing questions about security threats and Chinese influence, she added: “You're cracking me up because you're not talking about the really fun and positive, forward-looking things that we're going to do.”
But Ms. Phee acknowledged that political stability and regional conflicts would play a big role during Mr. Blinken's visits to Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola. “But we can never avoid the peace and security problems,” she said.
Africa also required extensive crisis management from Biden officials due to a wave of military coups from coast to coast, a brutal civil war in Sudan and violent radicalism in much of the north. U.S. efforts to reverse a July coup in Niger, whose president remains under house arrest, and broker a peaceful solution in Sudan have met with deadlock.
The recent flare-up in tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo was worrisome enough that the White House sent Director of National Intelligence Avril D. Haines, Ms. Phee and other senior officials to mediate in November. Angola has also played a mediating role, which Mr. Blinken will speak about in his capital, Luanda.
The Biden administration has paid particular attention to Angola. Mr. Austin traveled there in September, becoming the first U.S. defense secretary to visit the country. And Mr. Biden hosted Angola's President João Lourenço in the Oval Office in November.
One reason is that the United States is investing $250 million in a rail corridor that would allow minerals to be transported from inland areas of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Lobito, Angola's Atlantic port, from where they will travel to Europe and in The USA can be shipped to United States. During Mr. Lourenço's visit, Mr. Biden called the project “the largest-ever U.S. rail investment in Africa.” The corridor helps the United States keep pace with China, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in Angola.
China's reach extends to Cape Verde, where Mr. Blinken's motorcade drove to a government palace, past signs in Chinese indicating that the site had been built by Beijing.
Oge Onubogu, director of the Africa program at the Wilson Center in Washington, said that in recent trips to the continent she has found confusion about the U.S. agenda there. She said Africans were clearly aware of Russia's “sometimes insidious” security interests, which often take the form of mercenary military partnerships with governments. And China's economic development projects, she said, created “visible infrastructure that people can actually see and feel.”
“But they’re not entirely clear about what the U.S. is doing,” she said. Biden officials have sought to promote African democracy and condemned military coups in countries like Niger and Gabon, she said, while working with authoritarian rulers elsewhere.
“The US is talking about strengthening democracy,” Ms. Onubogu added. “At the same time, we maintain relationships with people who see Africans as not democratic leaders. So I think we have problems with messaging.”
Despite public concerns expressed by security analysts, Biden officials are bristling at persistent questions about how the United States will address China's huge investments on a continent that is increasingly supplying the country with oil, minerals and other natural resources. Mr Blinken will arrive in Ivory Coast a few days after a visit by China's top diplomat Wang Yi.
“Frankly, you are the ones who are calling this a football match between the US and China,” Ms Phee told reporters last week.
She added: “If it were not for China, we would be fully committed to Africa. Africa is important for its own sake, and it is important for American interests.”