After eight years, the United States once again held such a high-standard Africa-centered event, which can be described as a key home diplomacy of current President Biden. About 50 African heads of state have been invited, and it is estimated that about 65,438+0,000 African officials will attend the conference and its surrounding activities. The topics will focus on epidemic situation, climate change, trade and other issues.
Biden held the US-Africa summit, which filled the diplomatic puzzle in Africa.
Biden stressed in his statement that "the US-Africa Leaders Summit will be based on the same values, thus better promoting new economic participation." Reuters pointed out that Biden has not visited Africa since he took office. The US-Africa Summit will be Biden's most comprehensive survey of the complexity of the African continent.
He Wenping, a researcher at the west asia and africa Institute of the China Academy of Social Sciences, believes that under the dual background of great power competition and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Biden's government hopes to engage in a "small circle" with values diplomacy to win over other countries to contain and crack down on American competitors. ASEAN countries, Pacific island countries, American countries and African countries are all intermediate regions that Washington wants to strive for. These countries have a neutral stance on the Ukrainian conflict and have a good foundation for cooperation with China. The United States conducted "centralized public relations" for the top three this year, and now it is necessary to make up the puzzle of diplomacy with Africa.
US-Africa Summit
In recent years, Washington's attitude towards Africa has been hot and cold. During Obama's term of office, he played a "family card" against Africa, with much thunder and little rain. When Trump was in power, he not only became the only president who did not officially visit Africa after the Cold War, but also the relationship between the United States and Africa turned sharply because of his many rude remarks. After Biden's administration took office, it readjusted its relations with Africa and continued to increase its involvement in Africa. He Wenping pointed out that this move will "correct" the deviation of Trump's African policy, and the greater purpose is to win Africa to join his international "United front".
What's Washington's plan to suddenly be nice to Africa?
US Secretary of State Blinken claimed that the series of activities held in Washington "focused on deepening ties with African countries and people, an inspiring group full of innovators, entrepreneurs and young people."
He Wenping pointed out that both Blinken's "three visits to Africa" in recent years and the visit to Egypt by the special envoy of the Horn of Africa of the United States highly emphasized the importance of Africa-the United States praised the scale, market vitality and development potential of African young people, and their representation in the United Nations and multilateral institutions, hoping to close relations with Africa by lowering its posture.
According to the White House, Biden will announce during the summit that the United States supports the African Union to join the G20. In addition, Biden will promote African countries to become permanent members of the UN Security Council. In He Wenping's view, this is obviously intended to win the goodwill of Africa and push the US-Africa relationship back to the right track in the political field. "But the related issues are not new. China and other countries have expressed their support, and the United States is only rethinking. "
Biden data map
Recently, demont, Senior Director of African Affairs of the National Security Council of the United States, declared that "Africa should have a permanent seat in international organizations and initiatives long ago. We need more African voices in international dialogues involving global economy, democracy and governance, climate change, health and security. "
In this regard, Wei Song, a professor at the School of International Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, pointed out that this seems to highlight American support for Africa's participation in global governance in diplomatic discourse, but in fact there are other considerations. Recently, many African countries, including Uganda, refused to follow the West to isolate Russia. Based on this, the United States has to strengthen its political influence on Africa. In the American Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa published in August this year, the importance of African voting rights to the United States was emphasized for the first time. Supporting the AU's accession to the G20 is an attempt to make African countries stand in the international security, international pattern and competition among big countries.
Biden will promise 55 billion dollars in aid to Africa.
At present, Africa is facing the severe impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the economic situation is unfavorable, and the unemployment rate and other issues are also outstanding. African leader Wan Li is not far away, and how the United States will respond to Africa's own development demands has also become the focus of public opinion.
On the day before the US-Africa Summit, Sullivan, Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Affairs, promised on behalf of the United States that 55 billion US dollars would be provided to Africa in the next three years, involving economic, health and security support.
Sullivan data map
He Wenping pointed out that the United States hopes to focus on some practical issues in order to echo and support its African strategy. She predicted that the United States will give priority to 5G, vaccines, resources and minerals, infrastructure and other fields. "African scholars pointed out that the United States believes that these are things between China and the United States in Africa, so we must catch up and strengthen our strength."
It is widely believed that battery materials and trade relations will be one of the key topics of the "US-Africa Summit", and He Wenping is not surprised by this. Africa is rich in reserves because of rare metals such as cobalt and chromium needed to make batteries. Under the background that Biden administration advocates "decoupling and breaking the chain" with China, "the United States wants to lock in the producers of these important resources in Africa again."
In addition, Biden's plans of "Rebuilding a Better World" and "Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership" put forward at the G-7 Summit will also receive cooperation from the United States and Africa. He Wenping believes that the Democratic Party's tradition of attaching importance to climate issues will also prompt Biden to find a point of convergence with African interests in ecological protection and energy transformation.
However, there is no doubt that how many "checks" written by the United States can be finally cashed.
20 14 us-Africa summit
Earlier, Obama's "Power Africa" initiative promised to generate 20,000 MW of electricity in Africa by 2020. However, by the end of 2020, the actual power generation will be less than a quarter of the commitment. Trump's "Prospering Africa" initiative claims that by 2024, the US-Africa trade volume will double from $56 billion in 20 19, while the US-Africa trade volume in 20021year is about $64 billion, with an average annual growth rate of only 7%, accounting for only about 1% of the total US foreign trade in that year.
The Associated Press said that Biden hopes to narrow the widening trust gap between the United States and Africa through the US-Africa summit. However, over the years, the commitment of the United States to the African continent has been disappointing, and this trust gap is also widening.
Why did Biden "deliberately not mention China"?
It is worth noting that when Sullivan announced the commitment of the United States, he said that the United States "put all kinds of resources on the table" and claimed that the commitment of the United States to invest in the African continent was better than that of any other country. In He Wenping's view, Sullivan's "HuaLiYouHua" is given by referring to China.
A few days ago, the website of Foreign Policy magazine revealed that the agenda of the US-Africa summit drawn up by Biden's administration "carefully avoided China", and some sources revealed that it was "intentional" because it did not want to arouse the resentment of African leaders who were regarded as "chess pieces".
For a long time, Africa has suffered from "political reform". He Wenping believes that Blinken's "three concerns about Africa" must also understand the "aspirations" of African countries. Over the years, while developing relations with Africa, western countries have concocted so-called "neo-colonialism", "debt trap" and "vaccine diplomacy" and repeatedly attacked and discredited China. However, African countries don't like the pressure to take sides now, so it is wise for the US-Africa summit to avoid talking about China.
She also noticed that the South African Institute for Global Dialogue, a well-known foreign policy think tank in South Africa, released a report before the summit, saying that the United States smeared China-Africa relations and showed its attitude of cooperation with Africa, but it was unwilling to come up with real money. Its core appeal is to let African countries take the lead in the competition of great powers and curb the influence of China and Russia. Africa adheres to an independent foreign policy, and America's repressive diplomacy toward Africa will not succeed.
In response, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin responded at the regular press conference on June 5438+03, saying that China is glad to see that all parties in the international community pay more attention to Africa, but resolutely opposes using Africa as an arena for big countries to play games and using African strategy as a tool to contain and attack other countries' cooperation with Africa. In this regard, the African people have their own judgments.