JOHANNESBURG (AP) – The United States (US) sees Africa’s 54 nations as “equal partners” in tackling global problems, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in South Africa yesterday.
“Our strategy is rooted in the recognition that sub-Saharan Africa is a major geopolitical force – one that has shaped our past, is shaping our present, and will shape our future,” Blinken said at the University of Pretoria in a speech detailing the Biden administration’s policies for Africa.
“It’s a strategy that reflects the region’s complexity, its diversity, its agency; and one that focusses on what we will do with African nations and peoples, not for African nations and peoples,” he said.
Blinken said that the US and African nations “can’t achieve any of our shared priorities – whether that’s recovering from the pandemic; creating broad-based economic opportunities; addressing the climate crisis; expanding energy access; revitalising democracies; or strengthening the free and open international order – if we don’t work together, as equal partners.”
South African academics and students responded warmly to Blinken’s speech, which was a broad declaration of US intentions toward sub-Saharan Africa.
