President Biden confirmed Tuesday that he will visit Angola next month, fulfilling his pledge to visit Africa during his presidency.
The retiring 81-year-old-president will make a six-day trip abroad from Oct. 10-15 — with a stopover in Germany on the way — in the final month of the campaign to pick his successor in the Nov. 5 election.
Biden will visit Angola’s booming capital, Luanda, on Oct 13-15 to celebrate plans to build a $1 billion US-funded railway linking the oil-rich Atlantic nation to railways that reach the Indian Ocean, the White House said.
Biden also will emphasize “strengthening democracy and civic engagement; intensifying action on climate security and the clean energy transition; and enhancing peace and security,” the White House said in a statement as Biden attended United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York.
Although not stated officially, Biden’s trip is widely seen as part of Western efforts to woo Angola away from Chinese influence.
Angola is Africa’s second-largest crude oil exporter and prior Biden administration outreach has included backing a $2 billion solar energy project, with the Export-Import Bank issuing a $900 million loan last year — repairing relations after the US backed ruthless anti-government fighters there during the Cold War.
Biden previously hosted Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço in the Oval Office last November.
Lourenço was elected as the former Portuguese colony’s third president in 2017 — as the candidate of the ruling MPLA, the formerly communist party that has ruled Angola since its independence in 1974.
He replaced the notoriously corrupt former president, José Eduardo dos Santos, whose 38-year rule saw his daughter, Isabel dos Santos, become a multibillionaire. She now is facing corruption charges.
