WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014\u00a0President Joe Biden\u00a0is set to play host to dozens of African leaders in Washington this week as the White House looks to narrow a gaping trust gap with Africa \u2014 one that has grown wider over years of frustration about America\u2019s commitment to the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the lead-up to the three-day\u00a0U.S-Africa Leaders Summit\u00a0that begins Tuesday, Biden administration officials played down their\u00a0increasing concern\u00a0about the clout of\u00a0China\u00a0and\u00a0Russia\u00a0in Africa, which is home to more than 1.3 billion people. Instead, administration officials tried to put the focus on their efforts to improve cooperation with African leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis summit is an opportunity to deepen the many partnerships we have on the African continent,\u201d White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about the shadow that China and Russia cast on the meetings. \u201cWe will focus on our efforts to strengthen these partnerships across a wide range of sectors spanning from businesses to health to peace and security, but our focus will be on Africa next week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To that end, White House officials said that \u201cmajor deliverables and initiatives\u201d \u2014 diplomatic speak for big announcements \u2014 will be peppered throughout the meetings. The White House previewed one\u00a0major summit announcement\u00a0on Friday, saying that Biden would use the gathering to declare his support for adding the African Union as a permanent member of the\u00a0Group of 20\u00a0nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The summit will be the biggest international gathering in Washington since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Local officials are warning residents to brace for road blocks and intensified security as 49 invited heads of states and leaders \u2014 and Biden \u2014 whiz around the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talks are expected to center on the coronavirus, climate change, the impact of\u00a0Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine\u00a0on Africa, trade and more, according to White House officials. Biden is set to deliver remarks at a U.S.-Africa business forum, hold small group meetings with leaders, host a leaders\u2019 dinner at the White House and take part in other sessions with leaders during the gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden has spent much of his first two years in office trying to assuage\u00a0doubters on the international stage about American leadership\u00a0after four years of Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0\u201cAmerica First\u201d foreign policy. With this summit \u2014 a follow-up to the first such gathering held eight years ago by President Barack Obama \u2014 Biden has an opportunity to assuage concerns in Africa about whether the U.S. is serious about tending to the relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden\u2019s effort to draw African nations closer to the U.S. comes at a complicated moment, as his administration has made plain that it believes that Chinese and Russian activity in Africa is a serious concern to U.S. and African interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its\u00a0sub-Saharan Africa strategy\u00a0unveiled in August, the Biden administration warned that China, which has pumped billions into African energy, infrastructure and other projects, sees the region as an arena where Beijing can \u201cchallenge the rules-based international order, advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests, undermine transparency and openness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The administration also argues that Russia, the preeminent arms dealer in Africa, views the continent as a permissive environment for Kremlin-connected oligarchs and private military companies to focus on fomenting instability for their own strategic and financial benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, administration officials are emphasizing that concerns about China and Russia will not be central to the talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe United States prioritizes our relationship with Africa for the sake of our mutual interests and our partnership in dealing with global challenges,\u201d Molly Phee, assistant secretary of state for African affairs,\u00a0told reporters before the summit.\u00a0\u201cWe are very conscious, again, of the Cold War history, we\u2019re conscious, again, of the deleterious impact of colonialism on Africa, and we studiously seek to avoid repeating some of the mistakes of those earlier eras.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The administration has been disappointed that much of the continent has declined to follow the U.S. in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Biden is not expected to dwell on differences publicly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president is expected to participate with leaders in a session on promoting food security and food systems resilience. Africa has been disproportionately impacted by the global rise in food prices that has been caused in part by the drop in shipments from major grain exporter Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the unique aspects of this summit is the collateral damage that the Russian war has inflicted on Africa in terms of food supply and the diversion of development assistance to Ukraine. The opportunity costs of the invasion have been very high in Africa,\u201d said John Stremlau, a visiting professor of international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four countries that were suspended from the African Union \u2014 Guinea, Sudan, Mali and Burkina Faso\u2014 were not invited to the summit because coups in those nations led to unconstitutional changes in power. The White House also did not invite the East African nation of Eritrea; Washington does not have full diplomatic relations with the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden\u2019s decision to invite several leaders to the summit who have questionable records on human rights and democracy is looming large ahead of the gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Equatorial Guinea was invited despite the State Department stating that it held\u00a0\u201cserious doubts\u201d\u00a0about\u00a0last month\u2019s election\u00a0in the tiny Central African nation. Opposition parties \u201cmade credible allegations of significant election-related irregularities, including documented instances of fraud, intimidation, and coercion,\u201d according to the department. Election officials reported that President Teodoro Obiang\u2019s ruling party won nearly 95% of the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zimbabwe, which has faced years of U.S. and Western sanctions over poor governance, human rights abuses and widespread corruption, also was invited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who seized power from longtime ruler Robert Mugabe in 2017, has sought to cast himself as a reformer, but local and international human rights campaigners accuse him of repression that is just as bad or even worse than Mugabe\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Mnangagwa enjoys cozy relations with China and Russia, as did Mugabe, he has also sought to make friends with the U.S. and other Western countries in an effort to bolster his legitimacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a national address that he delivered in November in a new Chinese-gifted multimillion-dollar parliament building, Mnangagwa held out the invitation to the U.S.-Africa summit as a sign of his administration\u2019s success. He said the southern African country welcomed the invitation, but he also called for the \u201cunconditional\u201d removal of sanctions that he blames for Zimbabwe\u2019s debilitating economic woes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEmphasis remains on dialogue,\u201d Mnangagwa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ethiopia received an invitation even though Biden late last last year announced he was\u00a0cutting out the country from a U.S. trade program,\u00a0known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act, over Ethiopia\u2019s failure to end a war in the Tigray region that led to \u201cgross violations\u201d of human rights. A peace deal was signed last month, but implementation faces major challenges such as the continued presence of troops from neighboring Eritrea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Analysts say that African leaders will be looking for Biden to make some major commitments during the summit, including announcing his first presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa, efforts to bolster the continent\u2019s economy through private sector investment and trade and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps most importantly, it could be an opportunity for Biden to demonstrate that Africa is more than a battleground in its economic and military competition with Beijing and Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI do strongly believe that the United States is still seen as a superpower from the African perspective, but most African leaders do not want to align with its promotion of democracy,\u201d said Abraham Kuol Nyuon, a political analyst and associate professor of political science at the University of Juba in South Sudan. \u201cThey need the support of America but not the system of America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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