The United States warned that China and Russia were destabilizing Africa with their increasing inroads, at the start of a summit in Washington with African leaders on Tuesday, a claim Beijing rejected on Wednesday.
Almost fifty African rulers were invited to the event, the second of its kind after the one organized in 2014 by US President Barack Obama, and which the current president, Joe Biden, intends to take advantage of to reposition his country on the continent after the disinterest of his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Speaking on a panel with several African presidents at the start of the three-day meeting on Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted that “China is expanding its footprint” in Africa “on a daily basis” through its growing economic influence.
“The worrying piece is that they are not always transparent in terms of what they are doing and that creates problems that will eventually be destabilizing, if they are not already,” he said.
cheap guns
As for Russia, it “continues to send cheap weapons” and deploy “mercenaries across the continent. And that is also destabilizing,” he added.
China dismissed criticism of its role in Africa: its ambassador to Washington, Qin Gang, said the continent should not be a place for “great power competition.”
On Wednesday in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters that Washington “should respect the will of the African people and take concrete measures to help Africa’s development, instead of concentrating its efforts on smearing and attack other countries.
Biden plans to speak yesterday and today before the summit.
He will advocate in particular for a greater role for Africa on the international scene, with a seat on the UN Security Council, and for formal representation of the African Union in the G20.
On Tuesday, during a forum organized on the sidelines of the summit with the African diaspora in the United States, the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, assured that the new US strategy can be summed up in a single word: “partnership”.
shared priorities
All this, “recognizing that we cannot solve our shared priorities alone,” he said. However, the United States is careful not to talk of open competition with China on the mainland. However, the United States is careful not to talk of open competition with China on the mainland.
Beijing is the world’s biggest creditor to poor and developing countries and invests heavily in the African continent, which is rich in natural resources.
In addition to investments, the summit will focus on climate change, food insecurity -aggravated by the war in Ukraine-, trade relations and good governance.
