Secretary Blinken’s Meeting with Cabo Verdean Prime Minister Correia e Silva
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a tour of four African countries on Monday, meeting with the leaders of Cape Verde and Ivory Coast and touting America as the continent’s key economic and security ally at times of regional and international crises.
Blinken is visiting Nigeria and Angola next. The tour — which comes as deadly crises and rampant coups threaten the continent’s stability — focuses on trade, security, and democracy promotion.
In Cape Verde’s capital, Praia, he met with Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva and said the U.S. is committed “to deepening, strengthening, broadening” its partnerships with Africa whose young population of 1.3 billion is set to double by 2050 and make up a quarter of the world’s inhabitants.
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Analysts say Africa seems to have been pushed to the back burner under President Joe Biden as his administration is increasingly consumed by other international issues such as the fighting in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, as well as its rivalry with China. Biden also failed to visit Africa last year as he promised.
“As President Biden has said, we are all in when it comes to Africa,” Blinken told the Cape Verdean leader. “We see Africa as an essential, critical, central part of our future. This trip … really does focus on President Biden’s commitment and conviction that the United States and Africa are joined in partnership for the future,” he added.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Cabo Verdean Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva today in Praia. Secretary Blinken congratulated Prime Minister Correia e Silva on Cabo Verde’s malaria-free certification by the World Health Organization and its selection as eligible to develop a Millennium Challenge Corporation compact for the purpose of regional economic integration. The Secretary and the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of the U.S.-Cabo Verde partnership for advancing security and prosperity in the Atlantic Basin, West Africa, and around the world.
The Secretary welcomed the shared values between the United States and Cabo Verde in promoting democracy, good governance, and human rights.
Silva described Cape Verde as “a longstanding and consistent partner” of the U.S. and said such a visit shows “the Biden administration’s genuine interest in win-win partnerships with Africa.”
“We would like to strengthen our partnership with the U.S. in maritime security and cyber security from a regional, global perspective,” said Silva.
Cabo Verde is a longstanding and consistent partner of the U.S. We have a diaspora of thousands of American Cape Verdeans, Cape Verdean American citizens who are proud of their origins. We share values of democracy, good governance, respect for human rights, and a defense of human dignity.
History, diaspora, and values are the foundations of our relations. That’s why they are strong in structure. In general, Cape Verde’s foreign relations are guided by the values of liberal democracy, international law, and multilateralism, and by predictability, consistency, and trust in our partnerships. It is based on these references that we strongly condemn Russians’ – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we condemned the terrorist act of Hamas in Israel, and we defend solutions that make the two states of Israel and Palestine viable.
Also Monday, Blinken flew to the Ivory Coast where he met President Alassane Ouattara and senior government officials. They discussed “shared priorities of strengthening democracy, expanding trade and improving local and regional security,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
He is attending a football match between Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast later on Monday, part of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
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Associated Press writer By Chinedu Asadu