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https://scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3203626/africa-has-more-options-table-us-seeks-reset-ties
China/ Diplomacy

Africa has ‘more options on the table’ as US seeks to reset ties

  • President Joe Biden told leaders that the United States ‘is all in on Africa’, promising US$55 billion in investments in the next three years
  • If Washington delivers on its promises, it could challenge the narrative of unrivalled growth in Chinese influence on the continent, observer says
United States President Joe Biden talks with African leaders before they pose for a photo during the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington on Thursday. Photo: AP

The United States plans to pump US$55 billion into Africa in the next three years in a renewed effort to counter China’s growing influence on the continent.

Promising that the US “is all in on Africa and all in with Africa”, President Joe Biden told leaders from 49 African nations at a summit in Washington this week that it will increase investments in the continent’s infrastructure, agriculture, energy, health systems, information technology and security.

According to observers, it is a major shift in emphasis by Washington – from aid to trade – as it seeks to reset and improve relations with Africa.

The United States is making a renewed effort to counter Chinese influence in Africa. Photo: Reuters
The United States is making a renewed effort to counter Chinese influence in Africa. Photo: Reuters

Among the pledges made, Biden said the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a bilateral US foreign aid agency, would invest US$500 million to build and maintain roads in Benin and Niger. He said the MCC was expected to commit an additional US$2.5 billion across Africa in the next three years.

It comes after Biden in June proposed a US$600 billion initiative with the Group of Seven to build infrastructure through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. Washington aims to mobilise US$200 billion of that for the PGII over the next five years through grants, financing and private sector investments.

As part of the PGII, Biden said US$8 billion in public and private finance would go to help South Africa replace coal-fired power plants with renewable energy sources. The US is also funding a solar energy project worth US$2 billion in Angola, and a US$600 million high-speed telecommunications cable that will connect Southeast Asia to Europe via Egypt and the Horn of Africa.

Gyude Moore, a senior policy fellow at the Centre for Global Development and former minister of public works in Liberia, said “the proposed engagement plan is one of the most expansive we’ve seen from an American president in recent times”.

“There seems to be a very intentional effort to translate the new Africa strategy into material outcomes,” Moore said. “Beyond the pledged amount and private sector deals, support for African membership at the G20 and a seat at the [UN Security Council] all indicate that this administration intends to elevate its relationship with Africa.”

Moore said if the US delivered on the promises and commitments made at the summit, it would be a return to Africa that would challenge the narrative of unrivalled growth in Chinese influence there – especially since there has been a noticeable decline in Chinese financing over the last five years.

China is the continent’s largest trading partner after it overtook the US in 2009, and also the largest bilateral lender – funding mega projects like ports, highways, hydropower dams, bridges and railways as part of Beijing’s transcontinental Belt and Road Initiative. China says that in the past two decades it has helped Africa build and upgrade 10,000km (6,214 miles) of railways, nearly 100,000km of roads, 1,000 bridges and 100 ports.

But Beijing has been criticised by the West for offering unsustainable loans for belt and road projects.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Wednesday said the US should view China-Africa cooperation with an open mind and that “Africa is not a wrestling ground for major-country rivalry”.

“The US needs to respect the aspiration of the African people and take concrete actions to advance Africa’s development, instead of being bent on smearing and attacking other countries,” he said.

Total China-Africa bilateral trade reached more than US$254 billion in 2021, a 35 per cent rise from 2020. However, two-way US-Africa trade was at US$64.34 billion in 2021 – up 40 per cent from the year before but down from the 2008 high of US$141 billion, according to US Census Bureau data.

President Xi Jinping promised US$40 billion of investment in Africa – including exports and credit line support – during last year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Observers say the most important takeaway from this week’s Washington summit was Biden’s commitment to use American diplomatic clout to get Africa a seat at the G20.

“This will go a long way to start a conversation in Africa that the US takes Africa seriously and is prepared to champion its interests and amplify its voice on the world stage,” said Paul Nantulya, a research associate with the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies at the National Defence University in Washington.

Nantulya said there were long-standing grievances among African nations of being marginalised in international relations.

He sees the China-US rivalry playing out economically, but also in terms of security, values, norms and systems.

“Africans now have more options on the table to choose from and leverage to their advantage,” Nantulya said. “The more suitors you have, the more choices a bride has available to her. What’s more is that she can afford to take her time and be choosy.”

African leaders are mostly interested in reforming the international order that is anchored in the US and disadvantages Africa, according to Obert Hodzi, a lecturer in politics at the University of Liverpool in England.

He said Africa wanted the economic order restructured so that African nations had more say in development financing and fair trade, and two permanent seats with veto power on the UN Security Council.

“The US holds immense power on these issues. For the US, this is more of its geopolitical competition with Beijing and Moscow – an Africa siding with Washington would be a death knell on Moscow and Beijing,” Hodzi said.

But he said there was “no willingness in Washington to restructure the international order and see Africa as a competent and equal global player”.

Tim Zajontz, a research fellow with the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, said the US government had actively tried to dispel the idea that its renewed interest in Africa was just a geopolitical reaction to Russian and Chinese influence on the continent.

But he said Biden’s promises appeared to be strongly motivated by US economic and security interests.

“The differences between this and the last US-Africa summit in 2014 are remarkable, as the US administration is now actively wooing their African counterparts,” Zajontz said. “It is also noticeable that the Biden administration avoids lectures about good governance and liberal democracy and instead emphasises mutual interests and promises closer economic cooperation.”

Lina Benabdallah, a China-Africa specialist at Wake Forest University in the US, said there was “restraint on the part of many US government officials from mentioning China in their interactions with African leaders” during this week’s summit.

“The restraint is a strategic move that aims at demonstrating to African leaders a willingness on the part of the US to interact with African leaders as geopolitical actors in their own right,” she said.