As Washington vies for influence in the continent, the United States is pledging $55 billion in economic, health, and security support across a wide range of sectors in Africa to tackle the core challenges over the next three years, the White House said Monday.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced the United States’ effort to help African countries achieve their own goals one day before President Joe Biden hosts 50 African heads of state at the US-Africa Leaders’ summit in Washington DC.
Sullivan, however, declined to give details to the reporters at the time, pointing out that additional information will be revealed during the bilateral and multilateral talks in the coming three days as well as during the dinner President Biden will host for his African counterparts at the White House.
The guiding theme, as he stressed, would be the African Union’s plan for sustainable socio-economic development of the continent – its own Agenda 2063 – that will take over the entire first substantive session Biden will chair at the summit.
Sullivan said that considering that this isn’t an American document or vision, but one of the African Union, what the US is doing in this summit is lifting up African voices and African priorities.
It’s worth mentioning that the United States is battling to forestall the erosion of its once powerful position in the region of Africa where it is now competing for influence and opportunity with its superpower rivals Russia and China, which became Africa’s largest trading partner and the largest source of direct investment with trade volume reaching $254 billion in 2021.
Insisting, however, that the summit was not about other countries, Sullivan underscored that this is going to be about the US partnership with Africa and about bringing the resources to the table in significant numbers.
Sullivan announced the US support of inviting the African Union to join the elite G-20 group of countries and adding an African country to the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
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