Joe Biden touches down in Africa on last-ditch trip to counterbalance China, Russia

Outgoing US president Joe Biden arrived in Angola on Monday (2 December) for his long-awaited inaugural presidential visit to the continent and also the first-ever visit by a sitting US head of state to the oil-rich southern African country.
On his way to the African continent, Biden stopped in the Atlantic Ocean island nation of Cape Verde for a brief, closed-door meeting with prime minister Ulisses Correia e Silva. The US president was welcomed by his Angolan counterpart João Lourenço in the capital city Luanda where Biden also plans to visit the National Slavery Museum and then travel to the port city of Lobito for a look at the rail project. Biden promised to visit Africa last year after reviving the US-Africa Summit in December 2022. His last-minute trip to Africa is said to be both symbolic and strategic as it seeks to revitalize US-Africa relations and by reaffirming US presence on the continent to counterbalance China’s and Russia’s growing influence across the continent.
Central to Biden’s agenda is economic and strategic development that will most notably revolve around high-level discussions of the Lobito Corridor, an ambitious railway project backed by US investments. This initiative, when completed, will connect Angola with the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia and will guarantee the facilitation of critical mineral exports that are essential for modern technology. The visit to Angola by the outgoing president comes at a time when China and Russia have sought to reshape the geopolitical landscape in Africa with infrastructure projects and military alliances.