Biden hosts the Angolan president in an effort to showcase strengthened ties as Africa visit slips
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden hosted Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço in the Oval Office on Thursday as he sought to reaffirm his commitment to Africa even as two wars consume much of his administration's foreign policy focus.
The White House meeting follows Angola's move to position itself as a strategic partner for the United States and as the country has distanced itself from Russian and Chinese influence under Lourenço's tenure. The visit comes as Biden is set to break his promise to African leaders to visit the continent this year – although senior US officials have made significant trips to Africa in 2023.
“We are meeting a historic moment,” Biden said. 'America is completely involved in Africa. We are all the way with you in Angola.”
Lourenço praised Biden's approach to the continent, saying his country wants to develop better economic and security ties with the US.
“This is a new page in U.S.-African relations, and it's thanks to you, Mr. President,” he said.
Lourenço lobbyists had been calling on Biden administration officials for months for a meeting between the two leaders, warning that the lack of such high-profile engagement could jeopardize Angola's commitment to working with the US.
“While others in southern Africa are strengthening ties with China, President Lourenço is abandoning Angola's historic relationships with China (and Russia) in favor of a new and strategic partnership with the United States. This is a fundamental shift in Angolan foreign policy,” lobbyist Robert Kapla wrote to Biden confidante Amos Hochstein in April, according to lobbyist disclosure data.
“We have been informed that if President Lourenço does not meet with President Biden this year, there is a real risk that the positive momentum that both parties have generated since 2017 will begin to lose momentum,” Kapla wrote to Ambassador Molly Phee a week earlier , the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.
The visit comes months after Biden and allies from the Group of 20 leading rich and developing countries unveiled a trans-African corridor connecting Angolan port of Lobito to landlocked areas of the African continent: Kananga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the copper mine. mining areas of Zambia. It is part of a global infrastructure program championed by Biden that is intended to counterbalance China's Belt and Road initiative.
“They are a strategic partner and a growing global voice on peace and security,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday, adding that the two leaders would discuss economic and security cooperation as well as regional and global issues.
Much of Biden's recent foreign policy focus has been on Russia's war in Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Declaring that American leadership “holds the world together,” the Democratic president told Americans in an Oval Office speech in October that the U.S. must deepen its support for Ukraine and Israel amid two very different, unpredictable and bloody wars .
Biden promised to visit Africa in 2023 when he hosted the continent's leaders in Washington last December, but the White House has repeatedly declined to say when he will make the trip, and there is no indication he plans to make good on the promise sooner to make. the new Year. When Biden was asked by a reporter on Thursday whether he would visit Angola, he said only: “I've been there and I'll be back.”
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AP writer Chris Megerian contributed.