In the face of the serious global competition from China and a resurgent Russia, the United States has been forced to rejig its diplomatic blueprint for Africa.
As part of this elaborate redrawing of its diplomatic map of the world, US Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman will be the latest senior official to make whistle-stop tours of two countries in southern Africa – Botswana and Zambia, seen as traditional allies of Washington.
According to a statement from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Coleman will be involved in a series of engagements from June 24th to 27th.
She was also in Mozambique last February.
For decades USAID represented American soft power penetration in global diplomacy and it still does to this day.
Coleman, a diplomat and author was appointed to the role of Deputy Administrator for Policy and Programming at the USAID in November 2021 and her remit includes guiding the agency’s response to global crises and countering the influence of America’s rivals China and Russia.
With barely concealed dismay in Washington, these two emerging powers have been viewed as the new diplomatic juggernauts powering across the world, not least in Africa where there are no shortage of friends keen to welome and entertain them in a canter.
In recent years, diplomatic offensives by Beijing and Moscow have made significant inroads across Africa, where they have used development aid and investment as tools to woo African govenrments for trade and diplomacy, sending alarm bells ringing in Washington and other Western capitals.
Being the largest for some years, China’s trade flows with Africa have grown to an eye-popping $282 billion in 2022, seriously outflanking those of the United States with a trade deficit of 11.7 billion in 2021, according to the Global Trade Tracker.
While Coleman’s role is to act as USAID policy ambassador on development and American efforts to address the root causes of climate change and irregular migration from developing countries, the United States has not masked its intention to regain the diplomatic initiative in Africa, a continent that has grown in economic clout in the eyes of other very important suitors thanks to its seemingly inexhaustible reserves of mineral and other resources.
Coleman’s sojourn in the two southern African countries will serve as a symbolic way of demonstrating that US role in Africa including its security infrastructure was far from diminished in value and relevance.
Her itinerary in Gaborone includes taking part in the African Chiefs of Defense Conference (ACHOD), co-hosted by the Botswana Defence Force and U.S. Africa Command.
The ACHOD is an annual meeting of African Chiefs of Defense and other senior military leaders on the continent, a platform which the US is keen to use to show just how close it still is to African militaries.
Coleman’s speech at the conference revolved around the U.S. government’s holistic approach to advancing strategic interests in partnership with African governments.
From Gaborone, Botswana, the Deputy Administrator travels to Lusaka, Zambia, where she will engage with government leaders and members of the private sector to reinforce the U.S. government’s commitment to Zambia.
Ms. Coleman will also launch Zambia’s Global Food Security Strategy Country Plan, highlighting USAID’s investments in the country’s food security and the agriculture sector.
These investments build on USAID’s climate-smart approach to Zambia’s food security and resilience by integrating rural farming communities into the growing regional and global markets for agricultural products, according to the statement.
But all this is happening in the shadows of strained ties with South Africa, principally but not exclusively due to Pretoria’s position over the war in Gaza.
Washington and Pretoria, strong allies on many issues of shared global, regional and strategic interests in the past suddenly find themselves at opposite ends of the Gaza debacle.
South Africa had championed a case against Israeli ‘atrocities in Gaza’ at the International Court of Justice while the United States proverbially looked the other way, inviting indigant criticism from some of her trusted allies including Egypt.
It began earlier this years when the United States expressed displeasure over South Africa’s decision to welcome a Chinese frigate for training in South African waters.
American criticisms did not stope the South African military from participating in a 10-day joint military exercise with Russia and China from February 17 to 27.
South Africa apparently ignored Washington’s concerns that a move that the joint naval manoeuvres were ‘practical endorsement’ of the Russian invasion of Ukraine exactly two years earlier.
Pundits say whatever happens with the West on the one hand and its powerful friends of the east, Africa may emerge from this ‘mad scramble’ for its diplomatic attention a continent brimming with more than a hopeful promise for its future.
WN/as/APA
WN/as/APA
Source link : https://apanews.net/us-diplomatic-offensive-in-africa-strikes-south/
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Publish date : 2024-06-25 11:56:51
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