(Bloomberg) -- An American president will host a state visit for an African leader for the first time in 16 years, as the world’s biggest economy struggles...
-- An American president will host a state visit for an African leader for the first time in 16 years, as the world’s biggest economy struggles to build influence on a continent forging closer relations beyond Washington ’s top competitors China and Russia.Tech Up in Late Hours as Nvidia Emboldens AI Bulls: Markets Wrap
The last state visit to the US by an African leader was in 2008, when then Ghanaian President John Kufuor was welcomed by George W. Bush. Since then, engagement from countries such as the UAE, China and France have overshadowed the US, which for years has been focused on security agreements and humanitarian aid.
“In a world full of crises, it means that African countries rarely last long enough on the list to allow for the emergence of strong mutually beneficial Africa-US relations,” he said via email. “This is why Washington has never had a coherent strategic approach to the region beyond aid and humanitarianism.”The UAE has pledged more investment than any other country in the last two years, and increasingly exerted geopolitical influence in countries including Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.
One of the US International Development Finance Corp.’s flagship African projects is a $2.3 billion rail line to connect the mineral rich Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia to global markets — an effort to counter China’s dominance of the supply chain from Africa for critical minerals including cobalt.The impending expiry of a US preferential trade pact with Africa is likely to come up in the Biden-Ruto talks.
Ruto’s White House visit is widely seen “as a reward to a strong US partner in Africa,” said Gyude Moore, who served as Liberia’s minister of works and is now a fellow at the Center for Global Development, a policy institute in Washington.Kenya has been an ally in the fight against the Somalia-based Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, and is in talks to lead an international police force to Haiti to confront rampant gang violence that has pushed that Caribbean nation deeper into chaos.
Russia has seized the opportunity to offer security assistance and has been extending its influence in Africa in countries including Niger, Mali, the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso.
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