Biden will make history as the first US president to visit Angola

LUANDA, Angola (AP) — President Joe Biden will make history Monday when he becomes the first American leader to visit the West African nation of Angola and unveil U.S.-backed infrastructure there Projects that are intended to connect three nations.

On his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa, which comes at the end of his White House term, Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with his Angolan counterpart João Lourenço in the capital Luanda. He will also give a speech at the country’s National Slavery Museum.

Biden will also announce initiatives related to global health and security cooperation, among other things, a senior administration official said on Friday.

The president is also scheduled to fly about 300 miles from Luanda to the municipality of Lobito, where a port is the terminus of a railway line that his government has poured billions of dollars into to redevelop and expand a transit system for valuable minerals.

“We are preparing the ground to eventually reach Tanzania and connect the Atlantic with the Indian Ocean,” a second government official said on Friday. of the system that also runs through Zambia and the Congo.

The project aims to strengthen the American presence in the region, which is rich in key minerals used in electronic devices, vehicles and clean energy technologies and is a key area for US competition with China.

The second official also acknowledged that the government’s efforts appear to be trying to catch up with China, which has invested billions across Africa.

Two years ago, China owned 72% of the cobalt and copper mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the China Global South Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that tracks Chinese efforts in Africa.

Biden, who stopped on the Atlantic island of Cabo Verde along the way While off the west coast of Africa for a meeting with Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva, he had to postpone his post-Hurricane Milton visits to oversee the federal response to the disaster.

U.S. investments, the senior administration official said, are boosting economic growth for people in Africa in a way that Chinese spending does not.

“This is done by focusing on attracting investments from high-standard companies that are committed to high standards in labor, gender equality, health and environmental protection,” the official added.

Carlo Angerer reported from Luanda, Angola, and Aaron Gilchrist from Washington, DC