RESTORING LOST TRUST
The three-day summit is the first continent-wide meeting since former US president Barack Obama invited leaders in 2014.
“It is very significant for American foreign policy,” said Dr Shinn, who served for 37 years in the US Foreign Service.
“This is an opportunity to demonstrate what it is that the United States can make available to help the African states and also to reinforce to the American public the importance of the African countries, which admittedly are not well understood in the United States.”
The summit will likely see expanded trade and foreign direct investments in Africa.
It also seeks to repair strained relations with African countries, which suffered under the previous Trump administration and its “America First” foreign policy.
The new US strategy towards Sub-Saharan Africa, which outlines several objectives including fostering openness and delivering democratic and security dividends, comes out “of a particular realisation that the strategic milieu in Africa has changed, that there are new actors at play on the continent”, said Dr Obadare.
“The United States realises that it can no longer be business as usual when it comes to Africa.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on various areas such as migration and food security will likely be on the agenda at the summit. Several African nations have remained neutral towards the ongoing war.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, the US found that it could no longer afford to “take African countries for granted”, noted Dr Obadare.
“I’m sure the United States would want a situation where those on the fence, at least, are persuaded to join the Western alliance.”
Dr Obadare said it is important to consider how both sides would want their ties to be when the Russia-Ukraine war comes to an end “at some point”.
“And what the United States and Western diplomats want is a situation where once the conflict itself ends, the Western countries, the United States and Africa will be on the same page,” he added.
“There’s a lot of ground to cover, and Western policymakers would want to make sure that that ground is not lost when the conflict itself is over.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
