"One set of these announcements will be about the Lobito Corridor. We have mobilized billions of dollars for this project so far, you can imagine that the president will engage with various components of this infrastructure effort and elevate them," told reporters the special assistant to the President and director of African Affairs at the North American National Security Council, Frances Brown, last week during a meeting with the press to anticipate the priorities of the visit that runs until Wednesday.
The main focus of the trip, which was scheduled for October but ended up being postponed until now, will be on the Lobito Corridor, a railway infrastructure that connects Angola to the mining areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia and in which the United States is "really an important member", especially for the second phase of the project, said the coordinator of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) at the US State Department, Helaina Matza, in the same meeting with journalists.
This phase includes the construction of 800 new kilometers on the railway line that crosses Angola, Zambia and DRCongo, which will be added to the 1300 that already exist and are being renewed, Matza recalled.
Biden is also expected to make announcements related to global health security, food security and agribusiness, as well as an "important announcement on cooperation in the security sector" and "on preserving Angola's rich cultural heritage."
In 2023, trade between the United States and Angola totaled approximately 1.77 billion dollars, making Angola Washington's fourth-largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.
"We see Angola as a strategic partner and a regional leader. Our relationship with Angola has completely transformed over the last 30 years, and this transformation has gathered pace in the last three years", pointed out Frances Brown.
In this sense, the director of African Affairs summarized Biden's trip to Angola with three objectives: "elevating US leadership in trade, investment and infrastructure in Africa"; highlight Angola's "regional leadership and global partnership across a full spectrum of pressing issues, including trade, security and health"; and, finally, highlight the "remarkable evolution of the US-Angola relationship".
On the Angolan side, President João Lourenço highlighted the importance of the visit not only in terms of investments, but also in investments outside the traditional oil sector.
"President Joe Biden is opening the path for American private investment to Angola; so far, what we have seen over the decades is that American investment in Angola is more focused on the oil sector and we hope that with this visit there is greater diversification of American private investment in Angola", he stressed in an interview with The New York Times.
Asked whether Biden's departure takes away any meaning from this visit, João Lourenço rejected this thesis, "because until January 20th of next year, the American President is President Joe Biden", in addition to that "in relations between States it can there may be changes in the stones on the chessboard, but when relations are between States they are, in principle, guaranteed to continue".
"We are not worried about the fact that President Joe Biden is at the end of his mission," he said, highlighting that from January onwards not only Angola, but the rest of the world will have to work with Donald Trump "if it wants to maintain relations with the United States of America", refusing to comment on Donald Trump's future relationship with Africa and his policies.