STORY: :: Biden pledges lasting support to Africa

as he meets with Angola's president

:: Luanda, Angola

:: December 3, 2024

"I'm proud, excuse me, very proud to be the first American president to visit Angola, and I'm deeply proud of everything we've done together to transform our partnership thus far. There's so much ahead, there's so much we can do." //

"You've heard me say it before, Mr. President, the United States is all in on Africa, all in on Africa. // The United States is all in, all in in Angola. We've already, in my administration alone, invested over $3 billion in Angola thus far. The future of the world is here, in Africa, and Angola." //

"So, during this visit, I look forward to discussing, how we keep ensuring democracy delivers for people, because if they don't think it's a democracy, they don't think they're in on the deal, they don't think they're part of it, and you've been working very hard to establish good democracy here."

Fulfilling a pledge to visit the continent during his term in office, which ends in January, Biden said the United States was "all in on Africa," a phrase he had used during a U.S.-Africa summit in Washington in December 2022.

Lourenco said Angola wanted to work with the United States to attract foreign investment and improve defense and security ties, including joint military exercises and cooperation in the Gulf of Guinea and South Atlantic.

He also praised U.S. companies' investments in Angola's oil and gas sector and in various upcoming projects such as grain silos and logistics infrastructure.

Biden's trip will also focus on the Lobito Corridor, a partly U.S.-funded railway project aimed at making it easier to export critical minerals from the mining heartlands of Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to the west.

While Biden's presidency is in its last weeks, President-elect Donald Trump will likely back the railway and remain a close partner to Angola when he returns to the White House in January, according to two officials who served under the previous Trump administration.

Despite Biden's pledges to be "all in on Africa," U.S. influence there has declined during his term in office. The incoming Trump administration will have to address blind spots in its understanding of a fast-changing continent increasingly allied with China and Russia, and threatened by spreading jihadist insurgencies.