United States Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield Begins Outreach Trip to Africa

Thomas-Greenfield
Thomas-Greenfield

Several reports have indicated that the United States’ Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, began her three-African country tour from January 25 as an integral part of strengthening and revitalizing relations between the United States and Africa.

After the African leaders summit held in Washington, U.S. President Joseph Biden promised to send his top politicians this 2023 to reset ties with Africa. He also promised to visit the continent to assess developments relating to business investment and infrastructure development, governance as well as climate change and security.

As already known, Biden administration seeks to demonstrate its commitment to addressing the myriad challenges facing the continent, and has in mid-December publicly announced $55 billion for a number of projects over the next three years in Africa.

Arguably some experts say these are Washington’s response to both China and Russia’s significant and expanding economic, political, and military influence across Africa. Russian influence has been growing for decades, but its economic footprints look much weaker than China across Africa. Its war on Ukraine and its anti-Western propaganda has left Africa divided, most of its opaque military activities threaten Africa’s unity.

Biden  told African leaders that he was planning a trip to sub-Saharan Africa himself this year. Thomas-Greenfield has notably put the topic of reforming the way the U.N. Security Council works on the agenda for her trip to Africa.

She will also attempt working on partnerships with current and former U.N. Security Council nations; regional security issues, food security and refugee issues, supporting African recovery and mitigating the effects of climate change and to consult on the reform of the U.N. Security Council, an issue closed to the hearts of many African nation’s leaders.

She travels to Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya. This triangular trip from West Africa to Southern Africa to East Africa, is described as a follow up to series of trips by Foreign Affairs Anthony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

A senior Biden administration official said the high-level visits were intended to highlight the U.S.’s interest in helping to “address the impacts of drought, of conflict… climate change, and other contributors to food insecurity around the world.”

China has poured money into Africa for decades in the form of business and infrastructure investment and boosted security cooperation with some nations. The aid from Beijing, mostly in the form of loans, amounted to more than $153 billion between 2000 – 2019, according to the China Africa Research Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies.

Michelle Gavin, senior fellow of the Africa studies program at the Council on Foreign Relations, told CBS News’ John Dickerson last month that the Biden administration was prioritizing better relations in Africa for many reasons, not least of which, because “Africa’s labor force is going to be bigger than China’s and India’s by 2050.”

Richard Gowan, U.N. Director for the International Crisis Group, told CBS News that the flurry of visits represent an important diplomatic effort, and he said the Biden administration appears to be taking its African outreach seriously.

“But at the end of the day,” Gowan said, “African leaders will ask if this is a short-term courtship or the start of a more sustained U.S. attempt to rebuild ties on the continent, because China is winning influence in Africa through long-term business arrangements.”

“If the U.S. is not able to counter China’s economic outreach, American diplomatic outreach will not be a game-changer,” he said.

Beyond the Biden Administration, beginning 2023 the U.S. (both public and private sector) have year-round comprehensive agenda, concrete initiatives and various investment projects to work on across Africa. The White House looks to use the existing opportunities to deepen as many partnerships as possible and to ultimately build policy confidence and trust with Africa.

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