The United States of America is hosting a summit with Africa that opens today, Tuesday 13 December in the American capital. It is a meeting that aims to resuscitate relations with the black continent, in a context where most African countries have oriented their cooperation towards other partners like China and Russia.
49 African countries in addition to the African Union are expected in Washington today for the US-Africa summit. The first such meeting dates back to 2014, under the presidency of Barack Obama. His successor, Donald Trump, had clearly shown his lack of interest in Africa. Food security, the fight against terrorism, climate change but also democracy and governance are on the summit table. It is a three-day meeting designed to strengthen the relationship between the United States and the African continent, mainly due to the competition from China and Russia, which have become no less important partners for Africa, to the great displeasure of France and the USA. It is therefore a question of the American administration putting Africa back at the heart of world diplomacy.
The US wants to get closer to Africa
It is therefore a catch-up or recovery act that the current American president, Joe Biden, is engaging in. The latter, compared to his predecessor, shows a clear desire to get closer to Africa. According to sources, he supports the idea of a seat for Africa on the UN Security Council and will call at the summit for the African Union to be formally represented at the G20, it was reported. “This decade will be decisive. And the coming years will determine how the world is reordered,” said the National Security Council’s ‘Mr Africa’, Judd Devermont, stressing that the Biden administration “firmly believes that Africa will have a decisive voice”, Afrimag reports.
Confronting the Chinese and Russian presence
This summit takes place in a particular context. Indeed, China and Russia have become, in such a short time, omnipresent partners for Africa. As the largest creditor of poor and developing countries, China is investing massively in the resource-rich African continent. For example, Xi Jinping’s country has already exempted imports from some twenty African countries from customs duties. For its part, Russia has significantly increased its presence there. It is even common, during anti-French demonstrations, for people to wave the Russian flag and encourage their leaders to turn to Vladimir Putin’s country. Moscow has taken advantage of this to send mercenaries and develops close ties with some capitals such as Bamako.
49 out of 54 African countries invited
For this summit, the US administration sent a total of 50 invitations to Africa. Almost all African countries are invited to this meeting, except those with which the African Union does not have good relations, such as Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Sudan. But it must also be said that two other countries such as Eritrea, with which Washington says it does not have full diplomatic relations, and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic are also absent from the meetings. This is the result of open dialogue. The summit ends on Thursday 15 December with a reception at the White House.
