Biden will host the president of Angola and seek to strengthen ties with Africa

President Biden hosted President João Lourenço of Angola at the White House on Thursday and promoted a major U.S. investment in the country as he seeks to make good on his pledge to revive ties with African countries.

The visit marked three decades of diplomatic ties between the countries, and the two leaders discussed cooperation on critical issues such as trade, energy, climate and a US-backed $1 billion infrastructure project that would help Angola’s economy. But it came as the administration faced questions about the United States’ commitment to the continent, as plans for a long-promised visit by Mr Biden – originally expected this year – remain up in the air.

Mr. Biden made the pledge nearly a year ago at a U.S.-African Leaders Summit in Washington, where he convened delegations from 49 countries for the first time in eight years. At the summit, Mr. Biden declared that the United States is “all in on Africa’s future” and made a litany of promises about how the country would demonstrate its commitment, including telling leaders that he “ looking forward to seeing many of you’. your homelands.”

On Thursday, Mr. Biden appeared to try to reinvigorate that commitment at a critical moment. The United States lags behind major countries like Russia and China in the battle for influence on the continent, which has become an increasingly important area of ​​global competition, with the world’s fastest-growing, youngest population.

Mr Biden said the Oval Office meeting, the first he has co-hosted with an African leader since the summit, came at a “historic moment”. He then promoted Angola as an example of how his government had delivered on its promise to invest in the continent.

The United States is helping finance a $1 billion rail project for Angola’s Lobito Corridor, which would connect Angola to mineral-rich parts of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

On Thursday, Mr. Biden called the project “the largest U.S. rail investment in Africa ever” and said it would “create jobs and connect markets for generations to come.” It is also a project in which the United States, which is dependent on rare earths, has significant self-interest.

Mr. Biden said the United States is also investing another $1 billion in Africa “for a number of things,” including solar projects.

“Simply put, a partnership between Angola and America is more important and impactful,” Mr. Biden said at the meeting.

He also reiterated his promise to visit the continent and said he would return to Angola home to the first enslaved black people brought to the United States in 1619 and a country he traveled to before becoming president, although he did not say when.

Mr. Lourenço, who previously visited the United States as Angola’s defense minister, told reporters after the meeting that it was “better than I expected.”

“Our relationship is at a high level,” he says. “There is a total opening by the US government and Angola will win with this. Not just Angola, but the continent.”

However, the United States’ main rivals are not standing still. This year, President Xi Jinping of China visited the continentand President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia held its own top with leaders. The United States has maintained that its interest in Africa is not motivated by competition with other countries.

During Mr. Biden’s term, 16 administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, the first lady, Jill Biden, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, have visited the continent.

During a September visit to Angola, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III repeated that “Africa matters.”

“I am here because Africa matters,” Mr. Austin said. “It is of great importance to the shape of the world of the 21st century. And it matters to our common prosperity and our shared security.”

But Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Biden administration should not underestimate the symbolic importance of the promise the president made last year.

“I guess the question is how many cabinet secretaries on the continent equal one president answering the phone, or one president hosting an African head of state, or one president traveling to the continent?” said Mr. Hudson.

“I think the sentiment within the African community is that the reality lags far behind the rhetoric,” he said. “The rhetoric rose at the African leaders’ summit last year, and the reality is somewhere much closer to Earth.”