United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said the US is committed to deeper relations with Africa despite global crises as he opened a four-country tour of the continent.
Blinken is touring four democracies on the Atlantic Coast – Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola – as security deteriorates in the Sahel and doubts grow about a key US base in neighbouring coup-hit Niger.
US President Joe Biden welcomed leaders from Africa in 2022 in a show of newfound attention to the continent. But he did not visit Africa last year as promised.
Blinken nonetheless quoted Biden as he vowed, “We are all in when it comes to Africa.”
“Our futures are linked, our prosperity is linked, and African voices increasingly are shaping, animating and leading the global conversation,” Blinken said as he opened talks in Cape Verde.
“The United States is committed to deepening, strengthening and broadening partnerships across Africa,” Blinken said.
He called Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking archipelago of around 500,000 people that has cooperated with the US on law enforcement and naval stops, a “beacon of stability” and a “strong, principled voice”.
Much of the continent has been uneasy about the billions of dollars in Western aid to Ukraine, and Cape Verde’s Prime Minister Jose Ulisses Correia e Silva told Blinken that his country “strongly condemns” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Silva also criticised the recent spate of coups in Africa and said that Cape Verde was “guided by the values of liberal democracy”.
