Biden in Angola for first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president

LUANDA – Joe Biden arrived in Angola on Monday on the first and only trip to sub-Saharan Africa of his presidency which intended to underline US ambitions in Africa amid significant investment from China.
The US leader, who hands over to Donald Trump on January 20, is due on Tuesday to meet Angolan President Joao Lourenco in the capital Luanda and to deliver remarks at the National Slavery Museum.
On Wednesday, he is scheduled to travel to Lobito to highlight US investments in the region.
The port is at the heart of the Lobito Corridor, a massive infrastructure project which has received loans from the United States, the European Union and others.
In anticipation of Biden’s visit, the Angolan government declared December 3 and 4 public holidays and deployed heavy security across Luanda, a city of some 9.5 million people.
“It’s a historic visit, not just because he’s the first time a US President has visited Angola, but because it’s really emblematic of President Biden’s priority to strengthen global alliances and partnerships, and really of our strategic approach when it comes to US-Africa policy,” John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, told reporters Monday.
With Biden carrying little political weight so close to the end of his term, the trip risks being overshadowed by his pardon on Sunday of his son Hunter on criminal cases related to tax evasion and the purchase of a firearm.
The pardon shocked Washington as Biden entered the White House in 2021 vowing to restore the “integrity” of a justice system that Democrats said had been corrupted by Trump, and because he had specifically vowed not to reprieve his son.
The president instead issued a “full and unconditional” pardon on Sunday, absolving 54-year-old Hunter Biden of any wrongdoing over the last decade, charged or otherwise, just ahead of his looming sentencing over gun and tax convictions.
By visiting Angola, Biden is fulfilling a promise made in late 2022 to visit the oil-rich Portuguese-speaking nation of 37 million people.