WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden promised to visit Africa this year, but 2023 is drawing to a close with no trip in sight. Biden has also given no public indication that he plans to attend the U.N. climate conference starting next week in Dubai.
American presidents tend to announce their priorities through their agendas. Biden has promised a closer relationship with African countries. Likewise, he has emphasized the importance of global leadership on climate change.
Presidential trips can happen very quickly if necessary. Biden has made last-minute trips to Israel and Vietnam, as well as a secret trip to Ukraine. But the travel deadline is tightening and there are no clear signs of preparation.
Biden is looking ahead to what could be a tough 2024 re-election campaign and juggling a mix of other domestic and foreign concerns. Africa appears to have been put on the back burner, despite Biden’s effusive claims at a Washington summit with 49 leaders last December that it would be a strategic focus as the US made political and financial commitments.
“I am eager to visit your continent,” Biden said at the summit almost a year ago. “I look forward to seeing many of you in your home countries.”
Mvemba Dizolele, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said if Biden does not go to the continent this year it will “quite kill the momentum.”
“It was a crescendo, and then we let down our potential partners in Africa,” he said. “What should they think about this?”
In any case, others saw the potential trip as largely symbolic and of little impact on African leaders.
Such visits are often done as a political gesture “to make people feel good,” said Jideofor Adibe, a professor of political science and international relations at Nasarawa State University in Nigeria.
Rather than seeking state visits, Africa should use its increasing global appeal – as evidenced by the African Union’s new membership in the Group of 20 leading economies – “to put its house in order and achieve effective representation in a way those African voices,” he said.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said this week that he had no updates on when the president might go to Africa. Administration officials declined to preview any travel plans after The Associated Press asked separately, but they did emphasize Biden’s commitment to reducing fossil fuel use and hopes for a productive climate summit.
Biden has had a hectic year and that makes planning trips difficult.
The president just met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and attended a summit of Asian Pacific leaders in California. The strikes by auto workers and Hollywood writers and actors have just been settled. Biden is ramping up his re-election campaign and faces the risk of a federal government shutdown early next year.
He also has to deal with wars on two continents, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“On some level, the crisis in the Middle East, combined with the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, provides a small alibi,” said Daniel Russel, vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
Biden went to the 2021 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, and the 2022 Climate Conference in Egypt. Officials involved in preparations for the 2023 summit appeared to recognize that world leaders faced a series of challenges this year as a result of the wars.
UN Environment Program Director Inger Andersen said the agency would like to have as many heads of state involved in the negotiations as possible, but “we all understand the pressures and other crises unfolding around the world.”
She said the US-China climate deal struck earlier this month is a good start and both countries have experienced climate envoys, so that will offset.
Still, the idea that Biden could skip the Dubai summit tickled some.
“Joe Biden claims to be a champion when it comes to the environment, but from Africa, where I come, it looks cowardly and cruel,” said Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa. “We need to see our green political champions emerge. and encourage each other to take action.”
African leaders welcomed the idea of a Biden visit to their continent in the months following his announcement. Among the other officials who went to Africa this year are Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
With its young population and natural resources, the continent will drive economic growth in the coming decades. Africa has emerged as a key arena in the geopolitical competition between the United States and China, with both countries seeking to recruit allies in Africa with money for economic development.
When Harris went to Africa in March, the leaders she met often emphasized the importance of a Biden follow-up.
President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana noted that former President Donald Trump – the Republican front-runner for 2024 – had failed to visit the country, unlike Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
“We hope that President Biden will also be here to restore that trajectory,” he said.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan told Harris that her country was excited about a Biden visit.
“Tanzanians are now eagerly awaiting President Joe Biden’s visit to Tanzania,” she told the US vice president. “And please kindly convey our greetings and our invitation that Tanzania is waiting to receive him.”
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AP writers Seth Borenstein and Chinedu Asadu contributed to this report. Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria.