Journalists’ Briefing: Following President Biden on his ‘destiny of the world’ in Africa

LUANDA, Angola – It could have been a sign of President Biden’s seemingly strange trip to Angola.

It was postponed to 2023 due to the wars in the Middle East.

It has been postponed again to 2024 due to dangerous storms in the south.

And on the only full day of Biden’s first-ever trip to Africa as president, the skies opened up, sending downpours of rain and inundating roads.

It nearly halted the president’s and media’s one-hour trip out of the capital Luanda for Biden to make a speech at the National Slavery Museum of Angola.

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Yes, all this happened in a week when other news was hitting as hard as that rain. First, Biden’s pardon of son Hunter. The assassination of a senior executive in Manhattan. The fall of the governments of two of our most important allies. And the ongoing dramas surrounding Trump’s Cabinet picks.

But as Biden did, he did, never climbing the marble steps to the museum itself, but standing on a high point near the Atlantic coast with shafts of sunlight piercing the dark clouds.

He spoke about the role played by colonial masters in sending thousands of people to a life of slavery, including in the United States. Angola was a major player in the Atlantic slave trade.

“It is our job to face our history,” Biden commented, “the good, the bad and the ugly.

But he also faced the real reason for this trip – to help the southwestern African country of Angola settle down to prepare for the future. 2050, just 25 years from now. Africa will be the most populous continent in the world.

“In many ways, the success of Africa will be the success of the world. And I said at the US-Africa Summit in 2022, the United States is here for the future of Africa,” said Biden.

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A poster showing President Biden and Angolan President João Lourenco during a welcoming ceremony at Catumbela Airport in Angola on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

To deal with the present, Biden made an unexpected announcement of $1 billion in US humanitarian aid to help those displaced in Africa by drought and severe weather.

Earlier in the day, in a one-on-one meeting with Angolan President João Lourenco, Biden talked about the future. The main focus was on the Lobito tunnel, a railway and infrastructure project funded by 4 billion dollars from the US It aims to bring to the port of Angola valuable minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia as well as agricultural products and other industrial goods from Angola. .

Street scenes in Angola’s capital Luanda. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)

“We’re working together to raise more money,” Biden said, “to build more infrastructure, to help make these solutions a reality, to help Africa move forward.”

Critics scoffed that this was a “too little, too late” effort to catch up with China, which has been busy with infrastructure and other projects across Africa for years.

In an interview with Fox News, White House National Security Communications Director John Kirby backed down, he said. “It’s about them (the Angolans) participating and participating … in terms of bringing the product to the market.”

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Greg Palkot’s prints include a Soviet-style Angolan flag. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)

The expected mention of an increased US military role in Angola did not materialize. America is already sending hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to the country. There is new talk of a US base there to counter Russian military presence on the continent.

But the “elephant” that was hiding in all the meetings and gatherings was the fact that Biden is now a lame-duck president and that the incoming President-elect Trump, who has never been to Africa during his first term in office, who made sarcastic remarks about certain countries there, can face everything.

In a recent interview, the president of Angola said he will work with whoever is president.

President Biden stands for the national anthem with Angolan President João Lourenco at the presidential palace in the capital Luanda, Angola on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

And, in fact, in an interview with Fox News, the former Trump Africa ambassador J. Peter Pham told us that he thought many projects could survive, especially if China felt the sting.

He added, “I think the new administration will ask tough questions about our investments on the continent, where they are going and what is the best return on investment.”

Prosperity and poverty in the capital of Luanda. (Greg Palkot/Fox News)

On the last day of his trip, Biden inspected the Lobito rail site, where a major project is coming together. At a meeting with other regional leaders, after realizing he was an Amtrak fan, he appeared with his eyes closed and his head in his hands as if he were asleep, as if he were dozing off on those decades-long passenger rides as a driver. senator between Washington and Delaware.

Many in Angola seem to think, however, that the 82-year-old president played his part well in what was called his “end of the world.”

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The test will come when it is seen whether any of the profits from these projects trickle down beyond oil-rich Angola, to the young people of Angola, many of whom yearn for survival.

“The fact that an American is coming to Angola is a good thing,” another Luanda resident told us.

Despite the bad timing and bad news elsewhere … most people here are optimistic.