On a remote island, Blinken signals American attention to Africa

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken landed on a remote African island chain on Monday, kicking off a four-nation swing through the continent meant to demonstrate the Biden administration's continued interest in Africa amid major conflict in the Central East and Europe.

A cool Atlantic breeze blew over the dusty harbor of 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 called “a much stronger gateway to Africa was. for us and for so many other countries.” That project was completed more than a decade ago, but more U.S. development funds were on the way, he said.

Although his diplomacy included a refueling stop on his way to the continent, Mr. Blinken's visit to the small island 400 miles off Senegal's west coast added to U.S. interest in Africa's prosperity. 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 discuss a range of issues 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 were committed to strengthening ties with African countries, which have enormous economic potential and are a place where great powers compete with China and Russia. It is expected that Africa will be home to about a quarter of the world's population by 2050.

Mr. Blinken is making his fourth visit to sub-Saharan Africa as Secretary of State. A parade of other top administration officials has also visited the continent in the past year, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and the first lady, Jill Biden.

But President Biden has yet to fulfill a promise he made in 2022 to visit the continent, casting doubt on the depth of his commitment – ​​even as Mr Biden said at a US-Africa leaders' summit in Washington in December 2022 that America is “all in” on Africa's future.

Despite the region's myriad challenges, Biden officials said Mr. Blinken planned to focus on positive issues like economic development and cultural ties. In Ivory Coast, Mr. Blinken, a longtime soccer player and fan, plans to attend an Africa Cup of Nations match.

A statement from ministry spokesman Matthew Miller cited “climate, food and health security” as well as “our forward-looking economic partnership,” including investments in infrastructure 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 gloomy questions about security threats and Chinese influence, she added: “You guys are making me angry because you're not talking about the really fun and positive, forward-looking things we're going to do.”

But Ms. Phee conceded that political stability and regional conflict would loom during Mr. Blinken's visits to Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola. “However, we can never get away from peace and security issues,” she said.

Africa has also needed a lot of 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. US efforts to reverse a July coup in Niger, where the president remains under house arrest, and to mediate a peaceful solution in Sudan have reached a dead end.

A recent flare-up of tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo was so worrying that the White House in November sent Director of National Intelligence Avril D. Haines, Ms. Phee and other senior officials to mediate. Angola has also played a mediating role, which Mr Blinken will speak about in the capital Luanda.

The Biden administration has paid particular attention to Angola. Mr. Austin traveled there in September, becoming the first U.S. Secretary of Defense to visit the country. And Mr. Biden hosted Angolan 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 the transportation of minerals from the landlocked areas of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Lobito, Angola's Atlantic port, from where they flow to Europe and can be shipped to the United States. United States. During Mr. Lourenço's visit, Mr. Biden called the project “the largest U.S. rail investment in Africa ever.” The corridor will help the United States keep pace with China, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in Angola.

China's reach extends as far as Cape Verde, where Mr. Blinken's motorcade drove to a government palace past signs in Chinese saying the complex was built by Beijing.

Oge Onubogu, the director of the Africa program at the Wilson Center in Washington, said she found confusion about the U.S. agenda there during recent trips to the continent. Africans, she said, clearly understood Russia's “sometimes sneaky” security interests, which often take the form of military partnerships with governments. And China's economic development projects, she said, created “a visible infrastructure that people can actually see and feel.”

“But they are not very clear about what the US is doing,” she said. Biden officials have sought to promote African democracy and condemned military coups in places like Niger and Gabon, she said, while in other places they worked with authoritarian rulers.

“The US is talking about strengthening democracy,” Ms Onubogu added. “But at the same time, we maintain relationships with individuals who do not consider Africans to be democratic leaders. So I think we're having trouble with messaging.”

Despite public alarms from security analysts, Biden officials remain persistent in asking questions about how the United States will counter China's massive investments in a continent that increasingly supplies the country with oil, minerals and other natural resources. Mr Blinken will arrive in Ivory Coast in a few days after a visit by top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi.

“Frankly, it is you who are treating this as a US-China football match,” Ms Phee told reporters last week.

She added: “If China did not exist, we would be fully engaged in Africa. Africa is important for its own sake, and it is important to American interests.”