Biden Administration Reveals New U.S. Strategy on Africa

The Biden Administration's top foreign policy official, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, says the United States' new strategy for its partnership with sub-Saharan Africa is "rooted in the recognition that [the region] is a major geopolitical force, one that shaped our past, is shaping our present, and will shape our future." In a speech in South Africa, he said the policy had four priorities:

- To "foster openness, by which we mean the capacity of individuals, communities, and nations to choose their own path and shape the world we live in";

- "Working with African partners to fulfill the promise of democracy";

- To work with Africa to recover from Covid "and lay the foundation for broad-based, sustainable economic opportunity to improve the lives of our people"; and

- Combatting climate change by leading the transition to "clean energy".

Read the full text of his speech here, and the full strategy document from the White House here.

News coverage of his three-nation visit to Africa has included a focus on Africa's reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While Blinken denied in an interview in Johannesburg that the purpose of the visit was to counter Russia's influence in Africa, South Africa's foreign minister, Naledi Pandor - while exempting Blinken from her remarks - criticised unnamed European countries and the U.S. Congress for what she called their patronising and bullying attitudes to Africa.