During his three-day trip, US President Joe Biden met with Angolan President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o – who since taking office seven years ago – has pushed to bolster relations with the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States is all in on Africa,\u201d stated Biden during his meeting with President Louren\u00e7o at the Presidential palace, extolling how strong Angolan relations were with Washington.<\/p>\n
Biden’s visit sought to underline US investment in the region. Travelling to the coastal city of Lobito, the US President pledged a further\u00a0$600 million\u00a0of investments in the\u00a0Lobito Corridor.<\/p>\n
This project aims to revitalise supply chains by refurbishing 1,300 kilometres of train lines connecting Angola to the mineral-rich areas of Congo and Zambia in central Africa.<\/p>\n
The Angolan government has grown closer to the US under its current President, after decades of ties to China and Russia.<\/p>\n
Despite this, China’s growing influence in the region remains a preoccupation for US officials.<\/p>\n
During his visit, Joe Biden also visited the\u00a0country\u2019s national slavery museum. Speaking on a stage by the water, he said history cannot and should not be erased, and that while America was founded on the ideal of freedom and equality, \u201cit\u2019s abundantly clear today we have not lived up to that ideal.”<\/p>\n
Biden stressed how Angola and the United States \u2014 which were once linked by the horrors of enslaved human beings, now could increasingly be linked by economic opportunity.<\/p>\n
One issue which overshadowed the visit was the news that Biden had pardoned his son, Hunter, sparing him a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions. The news marked a U-turn in Biden’s past promises to not use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family.<\/p>\n
When reporters tried to question the president about why he gave his son Hunter a far-reaching pardon after repeatedly saying he wouldn’t, Biden tried to brush aside the questions. He gestured toward Louren\u00e7o and laughed, declaring, \u201cWelcome to America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe Biden will hand over power to US President-elect Donald Trump on 20 January.<\/p>\n
Louren\u00e7o, like many leaders of African nations, has already begun suggesting that he’s looking toward a Trump-dominated future. While Trump is alleged to have made\u00a0disparaging comments about African nations\u00a0in the past, the responsibility of seeing through projects like the Lobito Corridor will soon be his.<\/p>\n
Biden administration officials say they’re hopeful Trump and top Republicans will continue a business-friendly approach to investing in Africa that includes continuing to support the Lobito Corridor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During his three-day trip, US President Joe Biden met with Angolan President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o – who since taking office seven years ago – has pushed to bolster relations with the US. \u201cThe United States is all in on Africa,\u201d stated Biden during his meeting with President Louren\u00e7o at the Presidential palace, extolling how strong Angolan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Africa News","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,30],"tags":[275,1095,1183,2565],"class_list":["post-14391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-reports","category-southern-africa","tag-angola","tag-joao-lourenco","tag-joe-biden","tag-lobito-corridor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19554,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14391\/revisions\/19554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}