US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the “future of the world is in Africa” as he met his Angolan counterpart Joao Lourenco at the presidential palace in the Southern African nation's capital Luanda.
Biden, who arrived in Angola on Monday on a three-day visit, said he is proud to be the first American president to visit the African nation.
"The United States is all in Africa and I think testimony to that... my administration alone has invested over $3 billion in Angola that is why the future of the world is here, in Africa, in Angola," he said.
Biden, who earlier met President Ulisses Correia e Silva in Sal, Cape Verde, an island country in West Africa, said he intended to discuss with Angola how democracy produces results for people.
Turning point
He said he is deeply proud of what the US and Angola have done together to transform the bilateral partnership.
Citing the US-backed railway line, a vital infrastructure project, investment in solar energy and upgrading internet connection, Biden said the results of relations between the US and Angola speak for themselves.
Lourenco, who described Biden’s visit a turning point, called for strengthening of cooperation in defence and security sector between Angola and the US, as well as a public-private partnership to increase energy production.
In Angola, the US-backed railway line, a vital infrastructure project in terms of economic relations between the two nations, has particularly been highlighted.
Countering China
The project links the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean.
The 1,300-kilometre (800 miles) rail network from Lobito to Congo is expected to provide a fast route to transport exports to the West.
The $1 billion project, the largest rail investment by the US in Africa, could counter China’s grip on critical minerals such as copper and cobalt from Congo, according to analysts.
Biden is scheduled to visit Angola’s slavery museum in the capital Luanda and stop at the Lobito port on Wednesday.
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