U.S. President Joe Biden is set to embark on his first trip to Africa this week, beginning with a brief stopover in Cabo Verde before heading to Angola in Southwest Africa.
Frances Brown, senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council, expressed the president’s enthusiasm for the visit, noting that Biden sees it as an opportunity to reinforce his administration’s Africa strategy.
During his visit, Biden will focus on three main objectives: strengthening regional security, particularly in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, fostering economic opportunities across the continent, and enhancing technological and scientific collaboration.
The US has sought closer African ties after seeing other countries, including China, Russia and the Gulf states, seize commercial and strategic opportunities. But the visit will be overshadowed by concerns on the continent over whether the incoming Trump administration will tear up Biden’s reset of relations.
Peter Pham, who has been tipped as a possible assistant secretary of state for Africa in the Trump administration, said there could be significant continuity, though he expected the incoming president to demand greater “reciprocity” in trade and security relations and to be less indulgent with countries seen as antagonistic to US interests.
Amos Hochstein, a US envoy and close Biden adviser, recently complained Washington had not “even been competing” in Africa in much of the post-cold war period.
