WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden told dozens of African leaders gathered in Washington that the United States is “all in on Africa’s future,” laying out billions in promised government funding and private investment Wednesday to help the growing continent in health, infrastructure, business and technology.
The United States has fallen well behind China in investment in sub-Saharan Africa, which has become a key battleground in an increasingly fraught competition between the major powers. The White House insists this week’s gathering is more a listening session with African leaders than an effort to counter Beijing’s influence, but the president’s central foreign policy tenet looms over all: America is in an era-defining battle to prove democracies can out-deliver autocracies.
Biden in a toast at the start of the dinner noted the “original sin” of enslaved Africans brought to US shores and paid tribute to the next generation of leaders in both the US and sub-Saharan Africa. Many leaders of the continent’s 54 nations often feel they’ve been given short shrift by leading economies. But the continent remains crucial to global powers because of its rapidly growing population, significant natural resources and sizable voting bloc in the United Nations.
Biden made no mention of China in his remarks, and White House officials rejected the notion that the summit was in part about countering China’s influence. Rwandan President Paul Kagame also bristled at the idea of his country and others on the continent getting caught between the US and China. “I don’t think we need to be bullied into making choices between US and China,” Kagame said during an event on the summit’s sideline hosted by the news organization Semafor.