The United States of America Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has revealed that his country is committed to deepening and strengthening partnerships across Africa as he kicked off his west-African tour in Cape Verde on Monday, January 22, 2024.
Quoting President Biden, Blinken told his audience in Cape Verde that “we are all in when it comes to Africa; our futures are linked, our prosperity is linked, and African voices are increasingly shaping, animating, and leading the global conversation.”
Blinken, who is on his fourth African trip this week, will also be visiting Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Angola, prioritising strengthening security partnerships and enhancing health and economic development in the region.
The U.S. Secretary of State’s trip to West Africa comes moments after member states of the Non-Aligned Movement and G77+China convened in Uganda and called for multilateralism and respect for sovereignty, aspects the US has been accused of lacking.
During the closure of the NAM summit in Kampala on January 20, 2024, the new Chairperson, President Yoweri Museveni, said the NAM will not accept the continued push for unilateralism and dictating by the developed North, where the US lays out what independent states must do, adding that nations should not be manipulated, lectured, or threatened.
“Our stand is that the world should concentrate on the common human problems: prosperity through trade, the advance of science and technology to deal with human problems, the environment, crime, and terrorism. The future is bright if we act right,” he said.
Additionally, at the G77+China summit, China, a strong US rival, rallied developing countries to push for reform of the global governance system, which, according to some leaders in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, disproportionately favours the US-led faction commonly referred to as the West.
The Chinese Vice President, Liu Guozhong, who represented China at the summit, said that developing countries “should jointly support the reform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the international financial system.”
In light of the geopolitical polarisation, experts argue that the US is trying to counter the increasing Chinese and Russian presence in Africa despite African countries’ stance of non-alignment.
