Why hasn’t US President Biden made any state visits to Africa?

Joe Biden’s planned trip to Angola on October 13 was meant to be historic. His first trip to Africa while serving as president of the United States would have been in that country.

The White House delayed the trip to an undisclosed date as Hurricane Milton advanced on Florida last week, along with a trip to Germany where Biden was scheduled to meet with European leaders about the Ukraine war before heading to Luanda.

After a number of promises, the retiring US president finally made good on his travels to Africa. The visit was intended to give Angola a diplomatic victory while also granting the troubled government of President Joao Lourenco regional standing as its new leader after a ten year absence.

Although the postponement is reasonable, according to critics, Biden never really seemed interested in putting Africa first, despite growing rapidly in the hands of rival world powers like China and Russia, which they regard as important because of its significant natural resources, rapidly expanding population, and significant voting bloc at the UN.

Since Biden’s election into office in 2020, he has not set foot in any African country, despite his administration insisting that it prioritises the needs of the continent’s 1.3 billion people and respects its leaders. Biden has, in contrast, been able to travel to Europe several times, five times to the United Kingdom, as well as to countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.

“The Biden administration has fallen short of its own rhetoric”, Cameron Hudson, a senior Africa analyst at the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Al Jazeera. Even the Luanda trip appeared as a “hastily organised” last-ditch attempt for the president as he approached his final months in office, Hudson added.

“Ironically,]an Africa trip] probably matters more to Biden, who is searching to establish a legacy in Africa and wants to make good on a promise he has made repeatedly, than for Africa, which is already preparing for his successor”.

Big promises, little action

In December 2022, Biden made a first-time commitment to visit Africa. He was talking with 49 African leaders who had gathered in Washington, DC for the US-Africa Leaders Summit.

The summit was held at a time when US influence on the continent had already drastically decreased: in 2019, China overtook the US in terms of trade volume with Africa. Countries in the West African Sahel region have resorted to Russia for security partnerships since 2021, even kicking out US and Western troops stationed there.

Following a feast at the White House, Biden made ominous proclamations to his counterparts: The United States would work to ensure that African nations are granted permanent seats on the UN Security Council (UNSC), a goal that the African Union (AU) has pursued for 20 years.

Washington would also notice that the AU was invited to join the Group of 20, he added, to the cheering leaders’ loud cheers. The group accounts for trade and the world’s two-thirds of GDP.

“The United States is all in on Africa and all in with Africa”, Biden declared. Africa is a member of the conversation that takes place in every room, in every institution, and in every room where global issues are being discussed.

The hearty speech was completed by a $55 billion support package to the AU for infrastructure, healthcare, and a number of other sectors.

However, many of the promises have not been achieved, Hudson said. Biden’s failure to match his actions with his words comes largely from the administration’s initial laxness to the continent, he added.

In fact, Biden’s White House didn’t begin developing and publishing a policy statement outlining its planned relations with Africa until August 2022.

Hudson said that only gave him two years to leave a legacy, which isn’t enough time for him to make an appearance on the continent and, evidently, even less time to schedule a trip there.

When it surfaced, analysts called the much-anticipated Africa Strategy document “ambitious” and “modern”. By promising to increase African representation at international global institutions, strengthen economies, and promote climate adaptation, it shifted from former president Donald Trump’s emphasis on trade relations and aid tracking.

However, enthusiasm around the policy dampened gradually, especially after Biden’s exit from the presidential race in July.

Some experts believe that Biden won some games. In September 2023, the AU was admitted to the G20 as a permanent member. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, also made the announcement last month that her country would support two permanent UNSC seats for Africa, but she did so without gaining a veto.

Additionally, Biden visited the continent in a flurry of US officials. Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, has traveled to Africa four times. In the final game of January, he assisted in the mediation of peace between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He attended an African Cup of Nations game in Ivory Coast.

Vice President Kamala Harris too was in Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia for a week in March 2023, alongside Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

US vs China and Russia

However, pushing for Africa to have a permanent seat on the UNSC without veto power is akin to relegating its citizens to the second-class category, Tim Murithi, a professor and research associate at the University of Cape Town, argued in South Africa’s Daily Maverick.

In effect, according to Murithi, “Africa would once again be confined to the status of spectators in UNSC decisions that affect the lives of its citizens,” referring to a period of colonization and lack of representation at the body.

Besides, Blinken and Harris’s visits do not carry the needed weight, Hudson said. Biden’s former boss, President Barack Obama, visited Africa eight times.

“Presidential trips to Africa are rare enough that they always matter, though admittedly, this one would matter less coming as it does at the very end of a lame-duck presidency”, he added.

In contrast, China’s Xi Jinping has visited the continent thrice. His last visit was to South Africa in August 2023 for a summit of BRICS (Brazil, India, China, and South Africa) – a group analysts say wants to rival the Group of Seven countries. Analysts noted how Xi personally met with many African leaders in Beijing during the China-Africa summit in September when they took them on a tour of the capital.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin too was in South Africa in 2013 for a BRICS meeting. Due to international pressure on Pretoria to arrest him in March 2023 for his war in Ukraine, he was forced to participate in the meeting last year online.

Even Biden’s decision to visit Angola – if that happens – is faulty, critics say. Both sides have praised improved air connectivity and increased trade ties. A space exploration agreement was even signed by them last year.

More importantly, though, Angola is attractive to the US because of the Lobito Corridor, an unfinished $1bn railway project that will see precious minerals from the DRC transported to Angola’s Lobito port.

The US has pumped $3bn into the project. However, some say that this appears to be Biden’s biggest legacy on the continent is odd. The deal ultimately focuses on taking resources and resembles the “exploitation” the US has accused China of undertaking on the continent, some note.

Controversial ally

While Biden’s government lauds Angola as a close ally and “regional leader”, some Angolans are sceptical of the relationship.

President Lourenco’s government is deeply unpopular because of high living costs, corruption, and mounting human rights abuses. In June, authorities opened fire on protesters angry at inflation, killing eight people in the central Huambo province. In several cities across the nation, several others were detained.

Lourenco’s People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party, which has been in power since independence from Portugal in 1975, is also in the throes of an internal power struggle that has weakened the president’s image.

Even when he hosted Lourenco in the White House in November, Biden has not touched on these rights. His closeness to Lourenco, experts say, could be seen as emboldening the Angolan government.

“Lourenco has made significant lobbying investments to strengthen his standing in Washington. However, at home, he faces protests”, said Florindo Chivuvute, director of Friends of Angola, a group advocating for stronger democratic values in Angola and based in Luanda and Washington, DC.

In an effort to catch up, the US should not compromise its fundamental principles of democracy and human rights. These characteristics set the US apart from China, he said, and they are echoed by Angolans.

Angola warmed to the US only recently. Historically, the country leaned towards Russia, and in the early 2000s, towards China. Instead of using financial institutions like the World Bank, the previous government opted for Chinese loans.

However, many Angolans believed that the political elite would only benefit from a infamous obscurity, which experts claim is related to Chinese funding.

For Biden, wrenching Angola from China or Russia might be seen as a success, but experts say it is not one many Angolans recognise.

According to analysts, Biden has little to do now to strengthen his fragile African legacy now that his term has come to an end.

According to Hudson, who he will pass the baton will determine even the few successes he has now. While Harris might not sway too far from her predecessor, Trump’s “shithole” nations comment about African countries is still fresh for many.

Biden’s unfulfilled promises will always be a stain, though.

According to Hudson, “the issue with unmet expectations is that they sting more than promises never made.”

Source: Aljazeera