United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said his country is committed to deeper relations with Africa despite global crises.
Antony Blinken on Monday opens a week-long tour of Africa's west coast as he seeks to bolster US-friendly democracies with security deteriorating in the Sahel.
Al Jazeera reports that Blinken nonetheless quoted Biden as he vowed, “We are all in when it comes to Africa.”
“Our futures are linked, our prosperity is linked, and African voices increasingly are shaping, animating and leading the global conversation,” Blinken said as he opened talks in Cape Verde.
“The United States is committed to deepening, strengthening and broadening partnerships across Africa,” Blinken said.
The top US diplomat will start in Cape Verde before visiting Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola, his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa in 10 months as he takes a break from a time-consuming focus on the Israel-Hamas war.
With many Africans uneasy about the US attention to the Middle East and Ukraine, and President Joe Biden failing to live up to a promise to visit the continent in 2023, Blinken will seek to show a softer side of the United States on the trip.
The football-loving, French-speaking American is expected Monday evening at an African Cup of Nations match in Abidjan, days after a visit to Ivory Coast by the foreign minister of China, which Washington sees as its top long-term rival and has ramped up influence in Africa over the past two decades.
On his last trip to the region in March 2023, Blinken became the top US official ever to visit Niger, hoping to show support for elected president Mohamed Bazoum.
Four months later, Niger's military toppled Bazoum, and last week the coup-installed prime minister was visiting Moscow to seek greater cooperation.