U.S. President Joe Biden begins a three-day visit to Angola today, during which he is expected to make several announcements related to the Lobito Corridor, as well as in areas such as health, food security, and agribusiness.<\/p>\n
“A set of these announcements will be about the Lobito Corridor. We have mobilized billions of dollars for this project so far, and you can imagine that the President will engage with various components of this infrastructure effort and elevate them,” Frances Brown, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council, told reporters last week during a press briefing previewing the visit\u2019s priorities, which runs until Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The primary focus of the trip, initially planned for October but postponed until now, will be the Lobito Corridor. This railway infrastructure links Angola to the mining regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, in which the United States is “truly a key partner,” particularly in the project’s second phase, said Helaina Matza, Coordinator of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) at the U.S. State Department, in the same briefing.<\/p>\n
This phase includes the construction of 800 new kilometers of railway through Angola, Zambia, and the DRC, adding to the 1,300 kilometers already in existence and currently undergoing renovations, Matza noted.<\/p>\n
Biden is also expected to make announcements related to global health security, food security, agribusiness, and a “significant announcement on security sector cooperation” and “on the preservation of Angola’s rich cultural heritage.”<\/p>\n
In 2023, trade between the United States and Angola totaled approximately $1.77 billion, making Angola the fourth-largest trading partner of Washington in Sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n
“We see Angola as a strategic partner and a regional leader. Our relationship with Angola has completely transformed over the past 30 years, and this transformation has gained momentum in the last three years,” Frances Brown emphasized.<\/p>\n
Accordingly, the Senior Director for African Affairs summarized Biden\u2019s visit to Angola with three goals: \u201celevating U.S. leadership in trade, investment, and infrastructure in Africa\u201d; highlighting Angola’s “regional leadership and global partnership on a broad spectrum of urgent issues, including trade, security, and health”; and, lastly, showcasing the “remarkable evolution of U.S.-Angola relations.”<\/p>\n
From the Angolan side, President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o underscored the visit’s importance not only in terms of investments but also in diversifying investments beyond the traditional oil sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Joe Biden is opening the way for American private investment in Angola. Until now, what we have observed for decades is that American investment in Angola has been mostly focused on the oil sector. We hope that this visit will lead to greater diversification of American private investment in Angola,\u201d Louren\u00e7o highlighted in an interview with\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n When asked whether Biden\u2019s upcoming departure from office diminishes the significance of this visit, Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o dismissed the notion, saying, \u201cUntil January 20th of next year, President Joe Biden remains the U.S. President.\u201d Moreover, \u201cin relations between states, there may be changes in the chessboard pieces, but when the relationships are between states, they are generally guaranteed continuity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not concerned about President Joe Biden being at the end of his term,\u201d he added, emphasizing that starting in January, not only Angola but the rest of the world will need to work with Donald Trump “if they wish to maintain relations with the United States of America,” declining to comment on Trump\u2019s potential relationship with Africa or his policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. President Joe Biden begins a three-day visit to Angola today, during which he is expected to make several announcements related to the Lobito Corridor, as well as in areas such as health, food security, and agribusiness. “A set of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-featured"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8652,"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8651\/revisions\/8652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.negociosdeangola.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}