US needs to look through lens of Africans

The United States should work for the benefit of Africans and not compete with them, said a US expert on the US-Africa Leaders Summit held in Washington this past week. The event was attended by 49 African leaders.

"Washington must look at Africa through the lens of Africans themselves," Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, told China Daily.

Many issues, including food security, global health and education, were discussed at the three-day summit that ended on Thursday.

At the US-Africa Business Forum held on Wednesday and attended by 49 African leaders, US President Joe Biden said "the United States is all in on Africa's future". During the summit, he also announced investments in Africa worth billions of dollars, including $500 million to reduce transport costs at an important West African port in Benin, $350 million to boost its digital economy, and $150 billion worth of deals made at the forum.

The meeting is the first international conference hosted by the US since the COVID-19 pandemic and the first since the last US-Africa Summit was held during Barack Obama's presidency in 2014.

Gupta said: "The US-Africa Summit is a hugely welcome one, given that Washington has not always been as forthcoming toward Africa as it should have been, and which is in its interest to be," he said.

The summit takes place with the US viewing China as its global competitor. Biden's speeches had not mentioned China, but yet the meeting still highlighted China, which many observers and analysts have observed.

Joseph Sany, vice-president of the Africa Center at the United States Institute of Peace, said in an interview with SiriusXM's POTUS Channel 124 before the summit that "we know China is in the background although China is not mentioned in the agenda".

"Our goal is not to make this about China, but to make it about Africa and the US. And of course, China has been present. China's investment in Africa dwarfed US investment. We have been losing ground," Sany said.

The US seems to be downplaying its current Africa strategy's relevance to China. During a visit to Africa in August, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US would not ask African governments to pick sides in an intensifying standoff with other powers.

But US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday told African leaders at the summit that "the combination of those activities" by China and Russia and their influences risked "destabilizing" the continent.

Main driver

Gupta said: "China's significant inroads and win-win ties with Africa are a key driver that has concentrated minds at the African desks within the US government. Up to a point, it is good that Washington feels the need to up its game in Africa because of China's presence on the continent.

"But I would also admit that this is not the best way to approach the endeavor. Washington must work for the benefit of Africans as a matter of its enlightened long-term self-interest rather than as a matter of simply competing with another major power for the hearts and minds of Africans."

During a fireside chat with Semafor news platform, Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang said on Monday that Africa is a place for international cooperation rather than major power competition.

Qin also noted that the US and China should keep cooperating in Africa.

"We need to extend, broaden our vision, and expand our cooperation in Africa," Qin said. "This is one of the very interesting areas for the two countries to work on."