As part of the administration’s attempt to rebalance its economic strategy with the area while slashing humanitarian aid, President Trump will welcome five African leaders to the White House on Wednesday to talk about commercial investment.
The leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal will be invited by Mr. Trump to lunch in the State Dining Room. Mr. Trump thought each of the nations represented at the lunch had chances to work together on economic investment, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the event. In an effort to counter China’s growing influence on the continent and increase American access to vital minerals, the administration is trying to negotiate agreements with African nations.
The meeting with the leaders coincides with the president’s destruction of the US Agency for International Development, which has left African nations in shock, despite Mr. Trump’s recent upbeat tone over the possible collaborations. According to the Center for Global Development, U.S. aid to Liberia, for instance, accounted for 2.6 percent of the country’s gross national income, the largest share of any country worldwide.
According to a State Department cable last month, Mr. Trump is apparently thinking of extending his travel restriction to four of the five nations whose leaders will be in the Oval Office. The only country that has not yet been subject to a travel ban is Guinea-Bissau.
The Wednesday meeting also follows weeks after Mr. Trump received leading officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda to sign a peace deal that would put an end to the bloody conflict in eastern Congo. At the time, Mr. Trump claimed that the deal included an economic element that would provide the US access to vital resources in Congo.
Our approach is straightforward but ambitious: At this year’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, senior State Department official Ambassador Troy D. Fitrell stated, “Make commercial diplomacy a core focus of our diplomatic engagement.” He went on to say that during Mr. Trump’s second term, the government assisted in closing more than 70 business agreements in Africa related to technology, clean energy, and infrastructure.
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