The foreign policy for the future administration of Joe Biden is not yet defined. Joe Biden has been quite cautious about the foreign policy that his administration wants to pursue. But his team is showing positive signals for a rapprochement with the African continent.
Joe Biden’s team intends to show “mutual respect” for Africa and show their “commitment” to issues of democracy, security and the economy. Joe Biden wants to stand out from Donald Trump, who has called his African partners “shit countries” and who has never been to Africa.
Joe Biden promises to organize a summit with African heads of state, as Barack Obama had already done in 2014. Enough to create concrete ties with his African counterparts. It must be said that Joe Biden takes advantage of the expertise of big names in American diplomacy, such as the diplomat Nicolas Burns or Susan Rice, the former African prosecutor under Bill Clinton.
“We do not expect a dramatic change,” said one African diplomat. “We can expect,” continues this source, “a renewal of AGOA,” the trade program that enables African countries to export products to the United States without being taxed.
The major effort remains the US military presence in the Sahel. Joe Biden’s page has not given any indication of their intentions.
Finally, we should see a radical change in migration issues. Joe Biden intends to put an end to the “inhuman immigration policy” led by Donald Trump. The elected president promises, for example, to lift the “travel ban”, the restrictions that affect Nigerian, Sudanese and Somali citizens.
►Also read: President Biden: The Coronation of a Long Service in the United States
Gabonese Ali Bongo Ondimba was the first French-speaking African head of state to respond to social networks. In a tweet, he congratulated Joe Biden on his election as the 46th President of the United States.
On behalf of the #Gabon-ais people, I would like to congratulate @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris on their election to the presidency of #United States. Our countries have always been strong allies. The close relationship built over decades will grow even stronger in the future.
Ali Bongo Ondimba (@PresidentABO) November 7, 2020
From Addis Ababa, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Abiy Ahmed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris also congratulated in a tweet. “Ethiopia is looking forward to working close to you,” he said.
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