Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken wrapped up a four-nation tour of Africa on Thursday with a visit to Angola, an oil-rich former Cold War battleground that has become the site of a 21st-century struggle for economic influence.
During his visit to the coastal capital, Luanda, Mr. Blinken highlighted significant US investment in Angola, including more than $900 million in solar projects and $250 million to upgrade a rail corridor that carries critical minerals, including cobalt and copper , from central Africa to the Angolan port of Lobito in the Atlantic.
These solar investments help advance President Biden’s climate agenda, while transportation improvements advance his goal of diversifying American supply chains — in part to reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese control of vital ingredients for a modern economy .
Just over 20 years since the end of Angola’s civil war, which left up to a million dead, the country has rebuilt, modernized and developed friendly relations with Washington, which once funded rebels against a Soviet-backed government and Cuba. .
Speaking at a news conference alongside Téte António, Angola’s foreign minister, Mr. Blinken declared that US-Angola relations are at the “strongest” point in their history.
What was not said was Angola’s economic ties with China, which has loaned Angola nearly $43 billion.
These economic ties between Beijing and Luanda are one of several that have worried US military officials, who warn that China is seeking to establish a naval base with access to the Atlantic Ocean.
In March 2022, the top US commander for Africa, Steven J. Townsend said he was more concerned that Equatorial Guinea would grant China such a base, but that Beijing had made progress toward that goal in other African nations. Some analysts place Angola on this list.
US officials are quietly lobbying West African countries to deny China a military presence facing the Atlantic, said Cameron Hudson, who served as the National Security Council’s director of African affairs in the Bush administration. He noted that all four of Mr Blinken’s stops this week – which also included Cape Verde, Ivory Coast and Nigeria – have Atlantic coastlines.
The Chinese bases were not a specific topic of Mr. Blinken’s discussions this week, but the generally closer ties to Africa that the Biden administration has developed, including through new investments in Angola, are making it easier for other officials to support the Chinese concerns. military influence.
Rather than an overt discussion of China, much of the emphasis during Mr. Blinken’s trip was on what officials called an effort to treat African nations as partners rather than pieces on a global chessboard, reflecting the view of his Biden that Africans resent being treated like pawns. in a new Cold War with Beijing or with Russia, which has recently expanded its interests in Africa through the Wagner mercenary group.
But the Africans themselves raised the issue of geopolitical competition more than once during Mr. Blinken’s visit. In Ivory Coast’s capital, Abidjan, a local TV reporter told Mr Blinken: “Africa in recent years seems to have become a battleground for influence between the great powers. At what point are we thinking about the future of Africans?’
“It’s not for us to say they have to choose,” Mr. Blinken replied. “On the contrary, for us the point is to present a good choice. And then the world will decide.”
Without mentioning China by name, Mr. Blinken noted that “some countries” may lend money to African nations that run up unsustainable debt, and that those other countries may import workers instead of hiring locals. American investment, by contrast, can “lift everybody up,” he said.
In Angola, Biden administration officials appeared particularly proud of US support for the Lobito Corridor rail project, which they see as a model for a planned wave of US investment on the continent. The corridor will contribute to Mr Biden’s agenda to “de-risk” US reliance on critical minerals controlled by China. The Democratic Republic of Congo provides more than half of the world’s supply of cobalt, which is used to make lithium-ion batteries; about three-quarters of that country’s supply is mined from China.
US officials say the rail corridor, also funded by the European Union and African entities, will boost Africa’s long-term economic growth by attracting related investment. And they expect it to be profitable, unlike some of the big Chinese infrastructure investments that have come out of Beijing’s “Belt and Road” initiative over the past decade.
The project, they say, will also create jobs at home, furthering Mr. Biden’s goal of “a foreign policy for the middle class.” Work over 800 miles The corridor’s 186 bridges will use American steel and create 600 direct jobs, according to a news release from Acrow, an American bridge construction company involved in the project.
Speaking in Luanda, a port city where oil tankers steam in and out of the port, Mr Blinken said the rail project had “truly transformative potential” for Angola and the region.
Another question that came up more than once during the trip was whether Mr. Biden would make good on his promise in 2022 to visit Africa himself.
Asked on Thursday whether the president might still visit, Mr Blinken said his boss “would welcome the opportunity” to visit. “Of course, we have an election this year in the United States, so there are challenges in timing,” he added.
