▲ The presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, and of the United States, Joe Biden, during the summit of African leaders in Lobito, where the issue of the railway corridor that will speed up the transportation of products from the continent to Western markets was addressed .Photo Afp
Ap and Sputnik
La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, December 5, 2024, p. 26
Wolf US President Joe Biden yesterday pledged $600 million more for an ambitious multinational rail project in Africa, in one of his government’s latest foreign policy moves, telling leaders that the resource-rich continent and with more than 1.4 billion inhabitants, It was left behind for a long time, but not anymore. Africa is the future.
Biden used the third and final day of a visit to Angola – his long-awaited first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president – to travel to the coastal city of Lobito and tour an Atlantic port terminal that is part of the Lobito Corridor rail redevelopment.
Biden described it as the largest US investment in a railway project outside of its country. The Americans and their allies are investing in the project to remodel almost 2,000 kilometers of roads that connect with the mineral-rich areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, in central Africa.
The corridor, which will likely take years to complete, gives the United States better access to cobalt, copper and other minerals in Congo and Zambia that are used in batteries for electric vehicles, electronic devices and clean energy technologies.
China dominates mining in Congo and Zambia. American investment has strategic implications for economic competition between the United States and China, which escalated this week as they exchanged attacks over access to key materials and technologies.
African leaders who met with Biden said the rail corridor offered their countries a much faster route for minerals and goods, and a convenient outlet to Western markets.
This is a project full of hope for our regionsaid Congo’s president, Félix Tshisekedi, whose country holds more than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt. It is not just a logistical project, it is a driving force for the economic and social transformation of millions of inhabitants..
Biden said that the cargo that previously took 45 days to reach the United States, after crossing South Africa in trucks, would now take around 45 hours. He predicted the project will transform the region from an importer to an exporter of food.
The corridor has attracted financing from other sources, including the European Union, the G-7, a Western-led private consortium and African banks. Biden detailed that the total investment was $6 billion.
A senior US government official described the Lobito Corridor as the heart of the competition with China, not as a political adversary, but from a business point of view by boosting investment and helping countries in the long term.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Africa is a reliable partner. There are many things that unite us with the people of that continentduring the Russia Calls investment forum organized by VTB bank.