WASHINGTON (AP) — With dozens of African leaders arriving in Washington this week, the Biden administration is offering a not-so-subtle tone in its economic competition with China on the continent: the United States offers a better option to African partners.
Before the start of the three-day US-Africa Leaders Summit on Tuesday, Under Secretary of Commerce Don Graves acknowledged that the US has lagged behind China has surpassed US foreign direct investment in Africa, but argued that the US remains the “partner of choice” in Africa.
“We look at the ball, so to speak, and American investors and companies have to catch up,” Graves said at an event hosted by news outlet Semafor. He added: “We are bringing the best technologies and innovations, the highest standards… The US helps build capacity in our partner countries instead of exploiting those countries.”
The heads of state of 49 African nations and the African Union have been invited to participate in the summit which is billed as an opportunity for President Joe Biden’s administration to re-engage the continent’s leaders.
The continent, whose leaders often feel downplayed by leading economies, remains crucial to world powers due to its rapidly growing population, significant natural resources and sizeable voting bloc at the United Nations. Africa remains of great strategic importance as the US recalibrates its foreign policy with a greater focus on China, what the Biden administration considers the US’s most important economic and military adversary.
Even before the summit officially began, the White House announced Biden’s support for the African Union to become a permanent member of the Group of 20. nations and had designated Johnnie Carson, a well-regarded veteran diplomat, to serve as a point person for implementing initiatives emerging from the summit.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also said Monday that the administration would commit to spending $55 billion in Africa over the next three years in “a wide range of sectors to address the core challenges of our time.” ”.
“If you compare what the United States is committing to over the next three years to what every other country is committing to, I think we compare extremely favorably,” Sullivan said.
And while the administration has tried to downplay concerns about China’s deepening presence on the mainland as a driving force in talks this week, Beijing’s shadow over the biggest international gathering in Washington since the start of the pandemic is almost over. three years is great.
Without directly mentioning China, Treasury Under Secretary Wally Adeyemo sounded the alarm on Monday about declining private investment in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa. The infrastructure finance gap, or the money needed for essential projects like lighting homes and businesses, responding to the COVID pandemic, and making communities resilient against extreme weather, ranges from $68 billion to $108 billion per year, Adeyemo said.
At the same time, Adeyemo lamented that huge amounts of private capital among wealthy nations around the world remain untapped.
“There is a clear disconnect between the vast amount of capital available from the private sector and the urgent need to finance critical infrastructure projects in Africa and elsewhere. The question for us is: how do we connect this massive supply of savings with high-quality infrastructure projects in Africa? Adeyemo told the US Trade and Development Agency.
Trade between the US and sub-Saharan Africa was $44.9 billion last year, an increase of 22% over 2019. But foreign direct investment in the region fell 5.3% to $30.31 billion in 2021. Trade between Africa and China last year rose to $254 billion last year, an increase of about 35% as Chinese exports to the mainland increased.
The Biden administration, in addressing criticism that Africa has remained an afterthought in US foreign policy, has veiledly attacked China.
During his visit to Nigeria last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “too often, international infrastructure agreements are opaque, coercive” and “burden countries with unmanageable debt.” The language, though harsh, may have been more dovish than the Trump administration’s rhetoric; Vice President Mike Pence at the time accused Beijing of “debt diplomacy” in Africa and elsewhere.
China’s ambassador to the US, Qin Gang, on Monday rejected the notion of the Chinese debt trap, arguing that China has long been “sincere” in approaching Africa as the vibrant emerging market of the future.
“We are not interested in any other country’s views on China’s role in Africa,” Qin told the Semafor forum.
Asked if Biden administration officials would directly address US concerns about Chinese involvement in Africa during meetings this week, the officials bristled.
“This will not be about China,” added White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “It will be about Africa.”
But the Pentagon has acknowledged that China’s increasing efforts to establish military bases in Africa and forge stronger economic ties across the continent fuel US security concerns that will limit how much the US military can work with countries that have growing ties to Beijing.
Officials said in the run-up to the meetings that while the United States cannot and will not tell African countries to stay away from China, the administration makes it clear that allowing Chinese bases on its soil and using China’s telecommunications systems Chinese could harm the United States. military relations with them.
“We have a particular type of security, military and defense relationship… with African partners, and that could be compromised if they had Chinese bases in their region just because of the type of exercises, the type of work, the type of collaboration and training that we do with them,” Chidi Blyden, deputy assistant secretary of defense for African affairs, told reporters last week.
Speaking at an advocacy forum hosted by the George Washington University National Security and Media Project, Blyden said China’s use of Huawei communications network “makes it difficult for us to work with African partners.” She said it affects the US’s ability to communicate in a “clear and secure channel.”
The comments underscore longstanding concerns among military commanders that the US must not only keep pace with China’s military in the Indo-Pacific, but in other regions of the world as well. These include Africa, South America, and the Middle East, where China is considering military and economic expansion.
US officials have also expressed concern that China is looking to establish a military base on the west coast of Africa.
“China’s Huawei network, which is very robust across the continent, makes it difficult for us to work with African partners who may adopt some of these systems,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.
