USA and Angola To Celebrate 30 Years of Ties With Biden-Lourenço White House Meeting .

By Ajong Mbapndah L

U.S President Joe Biden will host President João Lourenço at the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday, November 30,2023. In statement from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre the US President and his Angolan counterpart will mark thirty years of diplomatic relations and discuss next steps towards deepening bilateral cooperation on trade, investment, climate, and energy.

According to the statement from the Press Secretary, discussions will also focus on President Biden’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment project in the Lobito Corridor which will connect Angola, the DR Congo, and Zambia to global markets through the Lobito port in Angola.

The statement also says the meeting will build on the tenets of the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit, on how the US and African nations and people can continue working together to address regional and global challenges.

On the margins of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) event at the G20 in India in September, the United States of America and the European Union welcomed the recent commitment by Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to develop the Lobito Corridor connecting southern Democratic Republic of the Congo and northwestern Zambia to regional and global trade markets via the Port of Lobito in Angola.

“To accelerate this work in partnership with the three African countries, the European Union and the United States are teaming up to support the development of the Corridor, including by launching feasibility studies for a new greenfield rail line expansion between Zambia and Angola. This represents a powerful evolution of the Partnership element of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment with a collaborative approach that could be replicated in other strategic corridors around the world,” a statement read after the meeting.

Aside meeting African Leaders during the last US-African Leaders Summit in 2021, and at diverse international forums, President Biden is still to make a formal trip to Africa.