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LUANDA, Angola — President Joe Biden arrived Monday in the southwestern African nation of Angola, a visit rife with symbolic importance and practical goals that marks one of the last foreign trips of his presidency and a closing moment in a 50-year public career that has focused frequently on foreign policy.

The visit represents the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited Angola, a country that is rich in oil and diamonds, but where most of the population lives in poverty after decades of corrupt leadership and a civil war that Washington helped fuel through covert action during the Cold War.

The two-day visit will be Biden’s only trip as president to sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to nearly a fifth of the world’s population but is chronically low on the list of the United States’ foreign policy priorities. The trip will mark the first visit by a U.S. president to sub-Saharan Africa since 2015, despite the<b> </b>continent’s vital role in the extraction of critical minerals, and its growing significance in the strategic and economic battle for influence between the United States and China.

Biden intends to use his visit to spotlight the U.S. commitment to strengthening global partnerships and alliances, and its investment in the continent, officials said. “We have absolutely transformed this relationship,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday aboard Air Force One en route to Angola.

Biden arrived in Luanda on Monday evening to an Angolan honor guard’s salute, performed by the same military and ruling party against which the United States had once funded rebel fighters and sought to overthrow. Banners throughout the city displayed pictures of Biden’s face superimposed over the American and Angolan flags — the latter reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s flag — and large crowds thronged the streets to watch the president’s motorcade pass.

Angola, Kirby said, has become a valuable strategic partner in recent years, helping to mediate between warring groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo and working with U.S. and European investors to advance a trans-Africa railway project.

Biden promised at a 2022 summit of African leaders in Washington that the United States would invest $55 billion in the continent over the next three years, most of which has been fulfilled, officials said this week.

During his presidency, Biden’s global agenda has often been engulfed by the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, leaving him less bandwidth for Africa despite his vows to renew America’s involvement there. In December 2022, the president <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/15/biden-africa-visit-2023/" target=_blank>promised to visit Africa</a> sometime in 2023, a deadline he missed by almost a year.

Biden’s message of optimism and engagement during the trip is also likely to be overshadowed by his departure from office in less than two months. President-elect <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> did not visit Africa at all during his first term, and his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-attacks-protections-for-immigrants-from-shithole-countries-in-oval-office-meeting/2018/01/11/bfc0725c-f711-11e7-91af-31ac729add94_story.html" target=_blank>denigration of immigrants from “shithole countries”</a> in 2018 was widely seen to refer to Africa as well as Latin America.

Biden will meet with Angolan President João Lourenço and deliver an address at Angola’s National Museum of Slavery, in keeping with his long-standing emphasis on Black history and the injustices that African Americans have faced.

He will also spotlight what the administration considers to be one of its signature development projects on the continent: the refurbishment of a railway that the United States, along with European partners, hopes will speed the movement of critical minerals from Central African mines to Western markets. These materials — including copper, cobalt and lithium — are used in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones to advanced weaponry.

U.S. investment in Angola’s portion of the railway, the Lobito Corridor, “epitomizes the model of U.S. international investment and engagement the president has championed,” Kirby said. “When it is complete, [it] will connect Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, making supply chains more resilient, creating more economic opportunities for communities across the continent and [in] the United States.”

The railway project also reflects an effort by the United States to move beyond its historical approach to Africa, one that has often focused largely on giving money, with mixed results.

“One of the examples of the change in our strategy in Africa was to move it a lot more towards … partnership, rather than traditional development assistance, grants and charity,” said one senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic matters.

Alex Vines, an expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent organization created by Congress, said Biden’s choice of Angola as a destination vividly reflects the shift in U.S. policy on the continent. “Angola is an orphan of the Cold War,” Vines said, noting that the United States did not recognize Angola’s government until 1993, after it had its first multiparty election.

Biden’s visit comes amid growing concern among Washington policymakers about China’s dominance of the global supply chain for minerals<b> </b>that are especially critical for microchips, batteries and other products that power the information economy.

Many of the world’s reserves of these minerals are located in Africa. That makes the continent an increasingly pivotal battleground for the strategic competition between Washington and Beijing, with China’s investment over the past decade giving it an edge.

Even so, Biden officials have been reluctant to publicly frame Washington’s interest in Angola, and southern Africa in general, as motivated solely by its larger competition with China, saying the administration cares about the country and the region for its own sake.

During Biden’s trip, the president is expected to highlight an array of investments his administration has made to strengthen Angola’s agriculture and food security. He is also scheduled to announce a new initiative to bolster the capacity of Angola and other countries to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease.

University of Michigan, BA in anthropology and Arabic studies

Columbia University, MA in journalism

Abigail Hauslohner is a Washington Post national security reporter focused on Congress. She was previously a roving national correspondent, writing on topics ranging from immigration to political extremism. She covered war and politics in the Middle East for seven years, and joined the Post in 2012 as Cairo bureau chief.

Abigail Hauslohner

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US President Joe Biden visits Angola, Luanda - 02 Dec 2024

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