Biden ‘proud’ to be in Angola for unprecedented visit.
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US President Joe Biden (C) walks past members of his security detail before boarding his plane on the tarmac of the Amilcar Cabral International Airport near Espargos, Cape Verde, on December 2, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
US President Joe Biden has said he is “very proud to be the first American president visiting Angola” at the start of talks with his counterpart João Lourenço.
Discussions at the presidential palace in the capital, Luanda, will be on security and trade.
The US government is backing a new 1,300km (810-mile) railway project linking an Angolan port with mining areas in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.
The visit to oil-rich Angola is part of a US effort to focus more on trade and investment in Africa, in what some analysts see as a counter to China’s influence on the continent.
In his first and only trip to Africa during his presidency, Biden’s choice of Angola is significant and it signals a dramatic improvement in relations between the two nations.
