Oil-rich Angola: A key partner in US ambitions for Africa
WASHINGTON
Joe Biden's choice of Angola as his first trip to Africa as president underscores the influence of the oil-rich country as the focus of one of the biggest U.S. infrastructure projects on the continent in a counterpoint to China's investments.
Biden's Oct. 13-15 visit, which comes just months before his term ends, will center on a massive multinational project to rehabilitate a 1,300-kilometer railway that will connect mineral-rich inland countries with Angola's Atlantic seaport of Lobito.
The Lobito Corridor project due to break ground in early 2026 will transport resources critical to the global economy, including copper and cobalt, from mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia to the port for export.
The project is a piece in the geopolitical battle between the United States and its allies and China, which owns mines in the DRC and Zambia among an array of investments in the region.
Biden called it "the biggest U.S. rail investment in Africa ever" when he met Angolan President Joao Lourenco at the White House in December.
"For Washington, Angola is an example of an African state that has become less ideological and that is actively diversifying its relations from being overly exposed to China and to a lesser extent Russia," Chatham House Africa program director Alex Vines said.
"Washington also sees Angola as an emerging, middle power in Africa," he told AFP.
The Portuguese-speaking nation of 37 million people is Africa's second-largest crude oil exporter, with the oil industry making up about 90 percent of its exports.
The eighth-largest economy in Africa in terms of GDP, its people are poor and jobless.
"Angola is diversifying its international partnerships but also needs to increase FDI," Vines said. "Growing U.S. investment in Angola is important for Luanda as part of this strategy."
The country was devastated by a 27-year civil war that started immediately on independence from Portugal in 1975.
The United States recognised the Angolan government in 1993, becoming an importer of its oil.
Since Lourenco's election as president in 2017, U.S.-Angola relations have warmed significantly, Vines said.
Peace and security as well as strengthening democracy would also be discussed during Biden's visit, the White House said.
But the focus is the railway project.
Beijing, meanwhile, agreed at a China-Africa summit in September to rehabilitate a separate railway line from inland mining countries to the Indian Ocean on the TAZARA route from Zambia to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
"The U.S. wants to counterbalance the growing China influence in Africa, specifically in southern Africa. But there's not any guarantee that the Lobito Corridor project will promote sustainable and inclusive development for local people," said Cesaltina Abreu, a sociologist at Catholic University in Luanda.
