Biden’s visit to Angola will focus on U.S. investments and regional partnerships in Africa

President Joe Biden will become the first sitting president to visit Angola this week, seeking to deepen ties between the two countries and highlight recent investments as an alternative to growing support from China.

Biden’s visit also marks the first visit to Africa by a U.S. president since then-President Barack Obama’s trip to Kenya and Ethiopia in July 2015.

His trip, scheduled for December 2-4, will begin with a bilateral meeting with Angolan President João Lourenço in the capital Luanda, according to a senior government official who predicted the trip. They last met in the Oval Office in December 2023.

Biden will deliver a speech in Luanda that will “explain both our shared history and highlight the growth and continued strength of our relationships in Angola and across the continent,” the official said.

He will also announce new results related to global health security, agribusiness, security cooperation and the preservation of Angola’s cultural heritage.

In 2022, the United States pledged to invest $55 billion in Africa over three years, and a senior administration official said 80% of that commitment had already been fulfilled.

“In recent years, Angola has seen an increase in telecommunications through U.S. government investment, with more people connected to 3G and now expanding 5G networks and renewable energy,” the official said. “In fact, through (the Export-Import Bank), the U.S. has approved the financing of nearly $2.5 billion in renewable energy projects that can move countries from energy deficits to energy exporters to their neighbors.”

The Biden administration is trying to counter China’s growing influence in Africa and extensive commitments of its own, including $50 billion in support announced in September to go toward infrastructure and at least a million jobs.

The official added that “we don’t think it’s a bad thing” for China to invest in Africa, but warned about what could happen in the long term with that support, as opposed to “meaningful” investments offered by the US become

“If it means that the communities living in the investment area have not seen an increase in GDP at the end of a few years of investment, that they have not seen any benefit in their lives, then that is not the case.” “The lives of the communities has improved. If that means the government will live under crippling debt for generations…then the government will have to decide whether that is the alternative it wants,” the official said.

“What we have heard over and over again over the years is that people want more – people in Africa want to have more alternatives for investment, not less. But if they don’t have an alternative, they are forced to go with the alternative, an investment they have.”

Biden is pushing for this trip less than two months before he leaves office, having promised to visit as early as 2022. Senior government officials said he had wanted to make the trip for a long time. While this was being worked on, over 20 Cabinet-level and senior officials traveled to the continent over the past two years, including Vice President Kamala Harris in March 2023.