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President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia, to discuss the U.S.-Zambian relationship and our shared commitment to economic and democratic progress. The two leaders discussed the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor and the new rail line from the Angola border into Zambia. They discussed how these investments in infrastructure — including through a new $491 million Millennium Challenge Corporation compact with the Government of Zambia in which the United States will invest $458 million and Zambia will commit $33 million — will help catalyze sustainable and inclusive economic growth for the people of Zambia, lower the cost of transporting goods to regional and global markets, and create an incredible legacy for generations to come. They affirmed the need to ensure conditions are in place to attract private sector investments in Zambia, including a conviction that strong, resilient democracies are essential to create quality jobs and inclusive economic growth. The presidents underscored their conviction that countries should not be held back from investing in their development by the need to service unsustainably high debt, and together committed to continue advocating for reform.

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The post Readout of President Joe Biden’s Meeting with President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia appeared first on The White House.

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia, to discuss the U.S.-Zambian relationship and our shared commitment to economic and democratic progress. The two leaders discussed the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor and the new rail line from the Angola border into Zambia. They discussed how these investments in infrastructure — including through a new $491 million Millennium Challenge Corporation compact with the Government of Zambia in which the United States will invest $458 million and Zambia will commit $33 million — will help catalyze sustainable and inclusive economic growth for the people of Zambia, lower the cost of transporting goods to regional and global markets, and create an incredible legacy for generations to come. They affirmed the need to ensure conditions are in place to attract private sector investments in Zambia, including a conviction that strong, resilient democracies are essential to create quality jobs and inclusive economic growth. The presidents underscored their conviction that countries should not be held back from investing in their development by the need to service unsustainably high debt, and together committed to continue advocating for reform.

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The post Readout of President Joe Biden’s Meeting with President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia appeared first on The White House.

Gesso, Italy

Buongiorno!

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for a warmer welcome than I could have imagined.

I’m also grateful to Ms. Prefect Di Stani and to President Schifani for their leadership.

Ambassador Markell, Jack, Carla, thank you for your hospitality and your work to strengthen the special relationship between Italy and the United States.

I know you have an excellent partner in Consul General Roberts-Pounds, Tracy, thank you for your service in Naples.

Dr. Mario Sarica, thank you for researching my family’s history and capturing it in your wonderful book.

My daughter, Ashley, and I just stepped into this beautiful church, where we saw the record of my great-grandmother’s baptism in 1865.

Father Franco Arrigo, thank you for inviting me to visit the church of my great-grandparents.

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that a city set on a hill cannot be hidden—that its light shines for all to see.

I’m here today because the light from the hills of Gesso shines across the world—and it shines brightly within me.

More than a hundred years ago, my great-grandparents, Gaetano and Conchetta Giacoppa, walked the narrow streets of Gesso. They talked with their neighbors and watched the stars wander out at night.

And in the everyday rhythms of life, they were shaped by Italian values: loyalty, hard work, and the belief that there’s always room for one more seat at the table.

Like many in their generation, strengthened by those values, yet seeking better opportunities, my great-grandparents decided to leave their homeland for the promise of an unfamiliar place, and the idea that no matter where you come from, you can find a home and a future in the United States of America.

As they crossed the Atlantic, they prayed for the protection of St. Anthony, who continues to watch over the people of Gesso.

In America, they quickly found that Hammonton, New Jersey was home to fellow immigrants from Gesso. And other neighbors had come from their own Gessos around the world, bringing the light of those homelands to their new nation too.

Step by step, my great-grandparents built a life. Their last name, “Giacoppa,” became Jacobs.

Their son—my grandpop—grew up and got a job moving furniture.

And his son—my father—joined the United States military at age 17, and then went to school to become a banker.

Within two generations, America was no longer an unfamiliar place. It’s where they dreamed bigger with every decade. 

My great-grandparents said goodbye to Gesso and set sail with hope in their hearts.

But they never could have predicted that within three generations, their great-granddaughter would be back in Gesso, standing before you, as the first Italian American First Lady of the United States.

As First Lady, I’ve brought the vibrant Italian American community together to celebrate our culture and sustain our traditions.

I’ve even had the opportunity to serve gnocchi and braciole in the White House!

And the values of loyalty, hard work, and that spirit of generosity that my great-grandparents brought with them to America still live on today.

I am so grateful to be here in Gesso. And as I look out at this beautiful place, and all of you, I feel the warmth of home. Because of your kindness, because of your joyful welcome, I will always remember and cherish this day.

And if my great-grandparents could see all of us here together, I know they would have been happy, not because I have the title of “First Lady,” but because their descendants stayed true to their roots.

I’m returning to Gesso today with gratitude for my great-grandparents, and you. For the culture we cherish. And for the light that shines in the White House, and wherever there is a son or daughter of Gesso.

May God bless you and keep you.

Grazie.

Now, I’ve brought a gift for all of you. Mr. Mayor, could you please join me?

My home, Delaware, has a state tree—the American Holly. So today, I’m giving Gesso a tree that’s closely related: the European Holly.

I hope this tree will stand for generations to come, as a symbol of the enduring bond between Gesso and her children across the ocean. May our roots remain strong, and may we always grow together.

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The post Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden in her Ancestral Hometown appeared first on The White House.

Gesso, Italy

Buongiorno!

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for a warmer welcome than I could have imagined.

I’m also grateful to Ms. Prefect Di Stani and to President Schifani for their leadership.

Ambassador Markell, Jack, Carla, thank you for your hospitality and your work to strengthen the special relationship between Italy and the United States.

I know you have an excellent partner in Consul General Roberts-Pounds, Tracy, thank you for your service in Naples.

Dr. Mario Sarica, thank you for researching my family’s history and capturing it in your wonderful book.

My daughter, Ashley, and I just stepped into this beautiful church, where we saw the record of my great-grandmother’s baptism in 1865.

Father Franco Arrigo, thank you for inviting me to visit the church of my great-grandparents.

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that a city set on a hill cannot be hidden—that its light shines for all to see.

I’m here today because the light from the hills of Gesso shines across the world—and it shines brightly within me.

More than a hundred years ago, my great-grandparents, Gaetano and Conchetta Giacoppa, walked the narrow streets of Gesso. They talked with their neighbors and watched the stars wander out at night.

And in the everyday rhythms of life, they were shaped by Italian values: loyalty, hard work, and the belief that there’s always room for one more seat at the table.

Like many in their generation, strengthened by those values, yet seeking better opportunities, my great-grandparents decided to leave their homeland for the promise of an unfamiliar place, and the idea that no matter where you come from, you can find a home and a future in the United States of America.

As they crossed the Atlantic, they prayed for the protection of St. Anthony, who continues to watch over the people of Gesso.

In America, they quickly found that Hammonton, New Jersey was home to fellow immigrants from Gesso. And other neighbors had come from their own Gessos around the world, bringing the light of those homelands to their new nation too.

Step by step, my great-grandparents built a life. Their last name, “Giacoppa,” became Jacobs.

Their son—my grandpop—grew up and got a job moving furniture.

And his son—my father—joined the United States military at age 17, and then went to school to become a banker.

Within two generations, America was no longer an unfamiliar place. It’s where they dreamed bigger with every decade. 

My great-grandparents said goodbye to Gesso and set sail with hope in their hearts.

But they never could have predicted that within three generations, their great-granddaughter would be back in Gesso, standing before you, as the first Italian American First Lady of the United States.

As First Lady, I’ve brought the vibrant Italian American community together to celebrate our culture and sustain our traditions.

I’ve even had the opportunity to serve gnocchi and braciole in the White House!

And the values of loyalty, hard work, and that spirit of generosity that my great-grandparents brought with them to America still live on today.

I am so grateful to be here in Gesso. And as I look out at this beautiful place, and all of you, I feel the warmth of home. Because of your kindness, because of your joyful welcome, I will always remember and cherish this day.

And if my great-grandparents could see all of us here together, I know they would have been happy, not because I have the title of “First Lady,” but because their descendants stayed true to their roots.

I’m returning to Gesso today with gratitude for my great-grandparents, and you. For the culture we cherish. And for the light that shines in the White House, and wherever there is a son or daughter of Gesso.

May God bless you and keep you.

Grazie.

Now, I’ve brought a gift for all of you. Mr. Mayor, could you please join me?

My home, Delaware, has a state tree—the American Holly. So today, I’m giving Gesso a tree that’s closely related: the European Holly.

I hope this tree will stand for generations to come, as a symbol of the enduring bond between Gesso and her children across the ocean. May our roots remain strong, and may we always grow together.

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The post Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden in her Ancestral Hometown appeared first on The White House.

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to discuss the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor and the broader economic partnershipand the bilateral relationship between the United States and the DRC and the Congolese people. The two leaders affirmed the need to ensure conditions are in place to attract private sector investments in the DRC, including good governance, transparency, and a sovereign DRC that is able to harness its immense wealth for the benefit of all its people. President Biden encouraged continued commitment to the Luanda Process to ensure a peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

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The post Readout of President Joe Biden’s Meeting with President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo appeared first on The White House.

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to discuss the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor and the broader economic partnershipand the bilateral relationship between the United States and the DRC and the Congolese people. The two leaders affirmed the need to ensure conditions are in place to attract private sector investments in the DRC, including good governance, transparency, and a sovereign DRC that is able to harness its immense wealth for the benefit of all its people. President Biden encouraged continued commitment to the Luanda Process to ensure a peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

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The post Readout of President Joe Biden’s Meeting with President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo appeared first on The White House.

Catania, Italy

Thank you, Captain Shoemaker. I’m grateful to you and Lisa for the warm welcome to Sigonella and for your leadership of this base.

And what a beautiful performance from the band!

Ambassador Markell—Jack, Joe could not have asked for a better partner from Delaware to the White House in Italy. It’s so wonderful to be able to spend this special day with you and Carla.

And today is possible because of the work of Consul General Roberts-Pounds.

I’m also grateful to all the Italian officials with us for taking the time to be here.

Thank you all for spending part of your morning with me.

The Bidens are a military family.

As the Captain said, my father was a Navy Signalman in World War II. And our son, Major Beau Biden, served for a year in Iraq as part of the Delaware Army National Guard.

So, 15 years ago, when I took my first overseas trip as Second Lady, I wanted to visit the people who make our freedom possible.

I traveled to meet military families stationed at Bamberg and Schweinfurt over 4th of July weekend.

In the years since, through Joining Forces—my White House initiative to support military and veteran families, caregivers, and survivors—I’ve sat with hundreds more servicemembers and their families—to keep listening.

Today, I’m humbled to be with military families here at Sigonella.

We just began the holiday season at the White House. And, I hope to bring some of that warmth across the ocean to all of you—though you seem to have created a pretty incredible display here too.

This year—Sigonella’s 65th anniversary—you’ve shown the world why you’re the “Hub of the Med.”

The 3rd highest Final Evaluation Problem score in history!

Holding 200 community relations events—more than any other base.

The Jaguars winning the European football championship to end a perfect season!

And every day you successfully weave through the Sicilian traffic.

But I know this life isn’t always easy: deployments that seem too long and phone calls that end too soon, PCSing every few years—leaving behind careers, schools, and communities.

That’s why Joe’s Administration is making sure we do everything we can to support military families

Lowering the cost of child care and bringing universal pre-k to bases—including this one!

Making sure military kids with disabilities can transfer their individualized education programs to their new school.

Signing an historic Executive Order to help military spouses keep their careers, and collaborating with the Italian government to let spouses work remotely here—because we have to do everything we can to make sure spouses have employment opportunities no matter where they’re stationed.

You are the brave and the bold.

You’re the spouses who hug twice as hard and cheer twice as loud at football games to fill that empty space beside you, so that other families can celebrate their milestones together.

The military kids who don’t have a hometown, so that other kids can stay in theirs.

You’re the 1% who serves, so the 99% can know freedom.

You stand on the front lines, protecting Americans around the world and ensuring those at home can feel the peace and light of the holidays year after year.

And we have a duty to make sure you can build good lives.

This is my last overseas trip as First Lady.

Just like all those years ago, I knew I wanted to visit military families—to let you know how much all of you mean to me and to your Commander-in-Chief.

It’s been the honor of this military mom and grandmom’s life to serve as your First Lady—and work to fulfill our sacred obligation to you.

With all my heart, thank you for your service.

May God bless you and your families.

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The post Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at a Joining Forces Event with Military Families at NAS Sigonella appeared first on The White House.

Catania, Italy

Thank you, Captain Shoemaker. I’m grateful to you and Lisa for the warm welcome to Sigonella and for your leadership of this base.

And what a beautiful performance from the band!

Ambassador Markell—Jack, Joe could not have asked for a better partner from Delaware to the White House in Italy. It’s so wonderful to be able to spend this special day with you and Carla.

And today is possible because of the work of Consul General Roberts-Pounds.

I’m also grateful to all the Italian officials with us for taking the time to be here.

Thank you all for spending part of your morning with me.

The Bidens are a military family.

As the Captain said, my father was a Navy Signalman in World War II. And our son, Major Beau Biden, served for a year in Iraq as part of the Delaware Army National Guard.

So, 15 years ago, when I took my first overseas trip as Second Lady, I wanted to visit the people who make our freedom possible.

I traveled to meet military families stationed at Bamberg and Schweinfurt over 4th of July weekend.

In the years since, through Joining Forces—my White House initiative to support military and veteran families, caregivers, and survivors—I’ve sat with hundreds more servicemembers and their families—to keep listening.

Today, I’m humbled to be with military families here at Sigonella.

We just began the holiday season at the White House. And, I hope to bring some of that warmth across the ocean to all of you—though you seem to have created a pretty incredible display here too.

This year—Sigonella’s 65th anniversary—you’ve shown the world why you’re the “Hub of the Med.”

The 3rd highest Final Evaluation Problem score in history!

Holding 200 community relations events—more than any other base.

The Jaguars winning the European football championship to end a perfect season!

And every day you successfully weave through the Sicilian traffic.

But I know this life isn’t always easy: deployments that seem too long and phone calls that end too soon, PCSing every few years—leaving behind careers, schools, and communities.

That’s why Joe’s Administration is making sure we do everything we can to support military families

Lowering the cost of child care and bringing universal pre-k to bases—including this one!

Making sure military kids with disabilities can transfer their individualized education programs to their new school.

Signing an historic Executive Order to help military spouses keep their careers, and collaborating with the Italian government to let spouses work remotely here—because we have to do everything we can to make sure spouses have employment opportunities no matter where they’re stationed.

You are the brave and the bold.

You’re the spouses who hug twice as hard and cheer twice as loud at football games to fill that empty space beside you, so that other families can celebrate their milestones together.

The military kids who don’t have a hometown, so that other kids can stay in theirs.

You’re the 1% who serves, so the 99% can know freedom.

You stand on the front lines, protecting Americans around the world and ensuring those at home can feel the peace and light of the holidays year after year.

And we have a duty to make sure you can build good lives.

This is my last overseas trip as First Lady.

Just like all those years ago, I knew I wanted to visit military families—to let you know how much all of you mean to me and to your Commander-in-Chief.

It’s been the honor of this military mom and grandmom’s life to serve as your First Lady—and work to fulfill our sacred obligation to you.

With all my heart, thank you for your service.

May God bless you and your families.

###

The post Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at a Joining Forces Event with Military Families at NAS Sigonella appeared first on The White House.

Luanda, Angola

MODERATOR: Thank you all for joining for this gaggle. Everything will be attributed to a senior administration official, embargoed until 10:00 p.m. local time.

For your awareness, but not for your reporting, our SAO is [senior administration official]. [Senior administration official], we’ll turn it over to you for a few words at the top, after which we’ll take some questions.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: All right, thank you.

So, as you know, the President is going to travel to Lobito, Angola, tomorrow. I’ll go through kind of a little bit of the schedule and then go into more of the details.

He’ll arrive in Lobito. He’ll be joined by — at the Port of Lobito and be joined by President Lourenço of Angola, as well as the presidents of Zambia and DRC, as well as the vice president of Tanzania.

They will tour the port. From there, they will travel by car to a grain facility — production facility of a company called Carrinho — I’ll explain a little bit later who they are and what they are — where he will tour the facility. It’s an agribusiness company. He’ll tour the facility by the founder and CEO, Nelson Carrinho.

He will then, at that facility, will also meet and get briefed by a number of other company leaders of companies that the United States has financed here in Angola and along the Lobito Corridor, such as Africell, who, if you’ve been traveling around Angola, you’ve seen a lot of their signs. They’re a mobile telecommunications company, a U.S. company that just a couple of — a few years ago, there was only a monopoly here of the state-owned company. They entered with U.S. financing support. Today, they have a significant market share already. They are also expanding beyond Rwanda to make sure that people in rural Angola can go from 2G to 3G. 2G is no data; 3G is with data.

And actually, we’re going to — we will be announcing shortly some financing for them — package financing for them to support their growth into both neighboring countries along the Lobito Corridor and to expanding to 5G here in Angola.

There, he’ll also be greeted by the CEO of Sun Africa, which is a company that has received financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. They are building something along approximately 700 megawatts of solar power, in addition to some storage and mini grids. This is the largest U.S. investment in solar power in Africa, here in Angola. It will mean that Angola will have not only a significant portion of its energy from clean sources, but also give the ability to export clean energy to its neighboring countries.

He’ll also be meeting with a leader from a company called KoBold — it’s with a K; K-O-B-O-L-D, as in David — which is a mining company in Zambia. Initially, it’s an American company backed by a number of U.S. well-known financial institutions, including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Ventures. And they made a discovery, a copper discovery in Zambia. It was one of the largest copper discoveries. As you all know, copper is extremely important for both the chips development, as well as for electric vehicles and expanding the grid, which we will need because of the expansion of data centers.

He will also meet a leader from a company called Acrow Bridge. That’s A-C-R-O-W. They are based in Milton, Pennsylvania. They make pre-fabricated steel bridges, so it’s American steel, American jobs. It’s a unionized company. And they then deliver those bridges here in Angola. I believe the contract is for 186 steel bridges to be delivered here in Angola, and hopefully will expand their operations elsewhere. It’s a great story of creating jobs in America to deliver good commercial benefits here in Angola and in Africa writ large, again, receiving some commercial financing from U.S. government institutions.

After he visits with all these companies, he will then join a roundtable hosted by President Lourenço and President Biden, together with the presidents of Zambia, the DRC, and the vice president of Tanzania, and with, in addition, the CEO of the AFC, which is the Africa Finance Corporation, who is a partner in both leading the project, the Lobito Corridor project, a rail project, and is a — well, my understanding is will likely make a financial announcement — financial commitment announcement to the phase two of the project.

So why are we going to Lobito? Why is the President going to Lobito? So, the Lobito Corridor really is anchored in the Lobito port itself, which is the gateway in and out of Africa for the critical minerals industry and now for agriculture.

The premise behind the corridor is to be able to take American support and financial capabilities that are admittedly limited and to focus them more deeply in one area versus spreading that financial support and effort across many countries. So, instead of a little bit of human and financial resource across the whole continent, choosing corridors where we can have the largest impact.

The Lobito Corridor was the test case for this approach, not just for Africa but globally, and has been a very successful proof point in that theory.

The rail is a refurbishment of a rail that goes from the Lobito port all the way to the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and nearby the border of Zambia, and extends all the way to eastern Congo. This means that a cargo of cobalt or copper that takes about 45 days to get from eastern Congo or Zambia to the market by going through Durban, South Africa — by truck, it takes about 45 days. This will take somewhere in the 40 to 50 hours to go the same distance. That is a remarkable not only cut in time, but cut in cost and the ability to get to market, which will then serve to cut the cost, eventually, of batteries and EVS or chips, et cetera.

So that is the first piece of what the Lobito Corridor does.

The reason the mining industry is so important in this is because by booking capacity in this rail, it makes it more financeable, more commercial. Nothing in what is happening in the Lobito Corridor is aid. It is all about making things commercial, financeable, and for-profit so that they’re actually sustainable for a long period of time and has the ability to have maintenance on it and so on.

So, getting the critical minerals out is not only an objective to help the United States diversify the supply chain, but it also means that now higher-standard companies from around the world are coming back into the industry in Africa for the first time. So, for many years, the higher-value companies were leaving, and instead, the mining was being done by companies who perhaps have lower standards across — whether it’s labor, environment, transparency, corruption — and now you’re starting to see higher-end companies with a better set of standards. KoBold is a good example of that. There are others now that are in final negotiations to come back into countries that they left only recently.

But once we wanted to work on the corridor, the President wanted to make sure we weren’t doing this on one issue alone of critical minerals, but rather how do we use this to raise GDP and support for countries along the corridor. What you’ll see is, beyond the investment that I just discussed, like Africell and the others, laying fiber-optic cable in Angola and along the rail to expand Internet connectivity, faster connectivity across a larger swath of land.

Countries that are land-locked, like Zambia and DRC, to a large degree, have a hard time raising their ability to feed themselves and to bring products to not only international markets, but even to their neighbors.

So, the rail suddenly opens up the ability to deliver commodities and food stuffs and equipment into — all the way to eastern Congo and Zambia. Both countries, Zambia and DRC, have fresh water, have arable land, and yet are importers of food.

What you’ll see in this facility that the President is going to go to, where the roundtable is going to be Carrinho, is the company that has built silos for storage so that you can get food crops into cold storage so they can last longer, which means that he is able to go to farmers across Angola and say, “Anything that you can farm, I will purchase,” and then be able to deliver. That has reduced the dependency of Angola already on certain products from a 100 percent dependency on imports to near zero and expanding.

So we’re working with — the U.S. government with Carrinho. How do you expand that into the broader region, into Zambia, into DRC, so that along the rail, now, if you’re in Zambia and you have the Zambezi River that has an enormous amount of fresh water, and yet they are importing food — if the agriculture there can be developed from small farms to large farms, and be able to sell into this corridor, we’re not only expanding it for critical minerals, but suddenly this corridor is now solving food security concerns across the corridor.

So this is the overview of why the President has gone not only all the way to Angola, but all the way to Lobito. And it’s a major investment for the U.S. The PGI initiative that we’ve talked to you about before is an initiative that is the leader in this.

Under this presidency, we’ve already spent, in this corridor alone, nearly $4 billion, but that’s just U.S. There’s a lot of other participants in this. The EU is coming in. The Italian government has provided, I think, $320 million of investment. The Africa Finance Corporation, as well as the Africa Development Bank, are all part of this and growing.

So, this is going to be a multibillion-dollar investment in lasting infrastructure that will not only not only build up these businesses, but bring about a change in attitude that the President mentioned in his public remarks today of increasing the transparency, increasing the standards of labor, increasing the environmental protection standards, all that have been — really, this continent has suffered enormously from investments that have not cared about any of those things and has taken the resources out and left behind no better economies, no advanced communities.

And so, the idea behind this corridor is that it will ensure that it doesn’t only come to take resources, but rather build up GDP, build up communities, build up towns, and increase the level of economic development for the towns and the communities around these businesses, as well as the country as a whole, while not adding crushing debt terms the way they have with other investors.

I will stop there.

MODERATOR: Great. With that, we’ll take a few questions, and we’re hoping to keep it focused on the visit tomorrow.

Q So, as far as just the rail project in particular, the big kind of new financial commitment is the AFC announcement, right?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, DFC, we haven’t formally announced it; we’ve talked about the (inaudible). But DFC, the Development Finance Corporation in the United States, has approved a $553 million package. And I won’t speak to what the AFC will announce tomorrow. That’s up to them.

Q Gotcha. And is that specifically for phase two?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That’s for phase two.

So what we did was the United States came in with phase one at $553 million, and that was good enough for the two European companies that are building the rail and operating it, in addition to us helping them get secured usage commitments of the rail. That’s at phase one. Once the world saw that we were serious about this, it sort of paved the way for everyone to be like, “Oh, this thing is actually for real.” And then they came in and supported, specifically after the President made a big push at the G7 last year that unlocked a lot of financing from others.

Q Can I just look forward to AGOA? What is the future of this rail corridor and AGOA? I know that’s up to Congress. But do you see that some of these countries that are eligible for AGOA — Zambia, Congo, and Angola — could expand their AGOA exports? And do you have a roadmap for that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think there’s no doubt that should Congress expand AGOA, that this would be a benefit. I think the point here is that it would support these countries’ ability to increase their exports, and will allow them to be not only connected to global markets for exports, but actually to other African markets. So, there is a critical need for Africa to be connected not only to the world and to itself. And so, the President spoke about it today. We talk a lot about it in aviation, where sometimes you have to fly very far away to go to your neighboring country, but having the critical infrastructure.

So, hopefully AGOA can strengthen it. But this is not reliant on AGOA. AGOA will just be a increase in support for it.

Q Right. But AGOA is, like, value-added products, and this rail line is going to bring in, like, raw materials. Is this is going to give an opportunity for these countries to export value-added products?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So I disagree with the premise that it’s for raw products. There is — right now, only raw product is coming out. But I think what this rail does — an increased — in order to get to higher-value products, you need a few things. One of them is affordable and reliable and abundant energy. So, the build-out of the energy system allows you to then build the value added.

And I fully expect — we are already discussing with companies that are looking — I can’t announce it for them, but I would assume in the next weeks and months you’ll see some of the companies, the mining companies and other service companies, building out infrastructure to create value added. So instead of just the raw material, you’ll be ultimately exporting something. Now, I can’t tell you how far up the chain it will be refined, but I think there’s a lot of refinement to be done here in Africa.

Q And on just the fi- — so the investment from the DFC, it’s $553 million?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes.

Q That’s what’s coming tomorrow?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That is part of the — when we talk about the over $3 billion of support in Angola, and then I think nearly or over $4 billion in total for the Lobito Corridor, the President is going to announce tomorrow an additional $600 million in financing for projects for the broader Lobito Corridor, and that takes you above the
number that we had talked about today.

Q Got it. So, additional $600 million is what (inaudible).

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah. But that’s not
just for rail. That’s for the broader — and not just in Angola; that’s for the broader corridor.

Q So that’s separate from the 553 (inaudible).

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Correct.

Q Yeah, I just want to make sure that they’re separate.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The $553 million is for the rail itself, a phase one rail in Angola. And then there are all kinds of things that we’re doing to support the broader corridor. Some of that’s what I talked about — Africell, Sun Africa, the feasibility study that we have to do for the phase two. Phase two is essentially building the entire rail system inside Zambia, which we are pretty far along on the planning of that. We expect shovels on the ground by the end of 2025 or early 2026. And there’s a lot of work that goes into identifying routes. Do a brand-new greenfield rail.

So the part from Angola all the way to east Congo is already being used. And then phase two is much more expansive, more ambitious. I should say there’s a phase three, which is then connecting it onwards all the way to Tanzania. That’s why the vice president of Tanzania is going to be here.

Q Okay, got it. And then, just wanted to — can you just talk about what this financing looks like going forward, with President-elect Trump coming in? And the dollars that have already been allocated to the project, can you kind of detail how it’s being spent, how much has been spent already? Like, I don’t know if you can kind of break that down.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, I think the most important way to tie the two ends of your question is to say that the money that I’m referring to, most of it has gone through the process already. It’s been approved. The ones that require congressional notification have already been congressionally notified. They have finished their notification periods. They have not had any holds. There is broad bipartisan support for these projects.

And, look, at the end of the day, if you want to talk about living in an era of global competition, specifically with China, this Lobito Corridor is the heart of that. You can’t stand up and say I want to compete with China — not adversary, but compete with China — and not support what’s happening here, which is why I have every confi- — which is why it’s had bipartisan support already across Congress, and why I have every expectation that when the new administration comes in, they will — I don’t know how many things they will continue around the world, but I believe they will continue this project because it is good for American national security, it’s good for American economic security, and it builds on what a Republican-controlled Congress during the Trump administration, which is to build that, that created the DFC for this kind of purpose.

And we’ve had Republican staff, Republican members of Congress, senators who’ve been to Angola, DRC recently. These are members who’ve never traveled to Angola before, but this is why they’re coming here. So, I think there is quite a bit of support for this.

Q Sorry, just a clarifying question. The $553 million, that’s for phase one, not two?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Correct.

Q How long will this take? You said that the Tanzania point — I mean, shovels in the ground for part of it, starting in 2025.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Zambia. Zambia.

Q Right. And then, the Tanzania is like the long goal. And right now, there’s a portion that’s already being used to east Congo.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right. This is all going to be in pieces. So, nothing is going to — this is not a “we wait until a big reveal and something all works.”

So we had a test cargo a couple months ago that went from east DRC all the way to Lobito. It doesn’t mean the rail is fully operational yet, but we wanted to see how it works. So that’s how I can tell you how many hours it takes, because we had that test cargo. That will, probably in the next year or so, will be — the work inside Angola will be complete, next year-ish. Right around that time is when the shovel is going to go in the ground in Zambia. Again, the feasibility study is now done, and now we have to do all the other project preparation, which, again, is expensive and takes time.

There’s already pieces of rail that exist if you go further east. So now it’s about, Patrick, how do you make sure that all the rails connect to each other. So you don’t have to build the whole way to Tanzania; you just have to build the spurs that interlink the rail that already exists all the way to the port in Tanzania. So, that will give you that — what the President said in his comments at the Slavery Museum — of connecting for the very first time a truly transcontinental (inaudible).

Q What’s the prediction for that, for it being (inaudible)?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t know. I think it’s hard for me to make that prediction. I think if all goes well, which construction projects sometimes do and sometimes don’t, I would say Zambia would then take probably two, three years to complete, and then — but some of the rest of the work could happen simultaneous, concurrently with the Zambia work. The Chinese are involved in a TAZARA section, which is they’re partnered with Zambia and Tanzania on part of that. And so that will connect into this. So we’ll have a lot of different pieces to this rail.

So my guess is, by the end of the decade, you can have a really fully functioning rail that goes coast to coast.

Q And do you hear frequently from these countries that you’ve been working with on the Lobito Corridor that they don’t have secure investments from their other investment partners? That’s been a big theme of what we’ve been hearing about. Without explicitly saying the names of the other partners, (inaudible) more reliable?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I’m sorry, who are the other partners?

Q China and Russia. That the U.S. would be a more reliable investor. That’s what the U.S. is offering. Do you hear from these leaders that some of these other investments are falling short; that they need somebody to come in and be reliable?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think that the investment from the United States versus from others, it’s not about more or less, it’s about different. We hear a lot about others coming in with very large checks, build a lot of stuff, but that is with high interest rates on the debt, the terms are really difficult, and it doesn’t come with any of the commitments to their society.

And so, what you see happen — and again, the President mentioned in the speech today — 10 years, 5 years later, 10 years later, you go to a country, whether it’s here in Sub-Saharan Africa or in Southeast Asia or South Asia, or even Latin America — I mean, look what’s happened. The resource is gone, right? They’ve taken it out. But there’s — the debt in the early years is low interest rates, and then it expands with time. In some cases, it’s over 11 percent, which is crushing. And there’s no support for the local communities where these investments are.

Now, politicians today are wise enough to know that “my predecessor left me this debt and a community that is anti-investment,” because they’ve seen that their kids are working in these facilities, or they’re getting paid a dollar a day. They know their drinking water is worse because nobody is providing security into making sure that they’re not polluting all the waterways or moving rivers.

So what they’re looking for is a different kind of investment that guarantees the opposite of all those things. And what I hear from heads of state, you know, consistently, is, “I don’t want the other investments, but if I have to choose between a Chinese investment and no investment, I will choose a Chinese investment every day of the week, or the Russian.”

So if you give us a choice, we’ll be there. And what the President committed at the African Leaders Summit was to create a different offer, and that’s what he charged me with trying to implement, and that’s what he’s done. And that’s why President Lourenço said today in his opening comments to the President, “You lived up to your word. You gave us your word at the leaders conference, and you’ve actually lived up to it with what you’ve done.”

Q Can I follow up on something you just said, that the hope is that this will attract, like, higher-quality investments. But how — is there a mechanism in place to verify that the companies that will take part in this project, like actually have higher standards regarding, like, labor rights, environment, transparency, et cetera?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, there is. I mean, the whole point of the U.S. participating in this is that part of the DFC or Ex-Im Bank or MCC or USAID, any of these organizations in the U.S. government, they vet the companies for that kind of action, and not just before they give the loan facilities or debt facilities, but rather during the project itself.

Second, with the fact that the U.S. government is saying we are effectively putting the American flag on these projects, we have a responsibility. And so, there’s a continued U.S. — you know, shining a light on these projects to make sure that it is done in the proper manner.

MODERATOR: We have time for just a couple more.

Q You know, I know this was supposed to come earlier, and the hurricane sort of derailed everything, but is there a fear that this is coming so late in the administration that even though this is, you know, good work that’s going to certainly have a lasting impact, that it’s going to be overshadowed by the President leaving office?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t think so at all. Look, the President was supposed to be here earlier, but I don’t think it makes any difference.

What’s being highlighted here, guys, is the — you know, we’re so used to the cynical of “government comes and we tout.” This is, like, literally, a transformative initiative for the United States that I think it’s not about whether the Trump administration is going to continue it, which I have very little doubt, but rather, I think this is the playbook for administrations to come.

There are a lot of things that we’ve done around the world. I mean, PEPFAR is, I think, George W. Bush, and we’re still talking about what a great initiative that was. Everybody thinks the DFC was a very good thing globally.

So, yes, from administration to administration, some things get carried on. So, I truly believe that this is something transformative.

But look at the politics of this. And I don’t want people to miss this: Nobody — when I came this morning to the palace, before the arrival ceremony, the ministers that I was talking to, the one thing that every single one of them separately said to me, “What we’ve been talking about is that no one in this country, at our age, would have believed that the United States would be here, the president of the United States would be here,” based on the relationship that we once had. We weren’t just on the other side of the Cold War. We were very much on the other side of the Cold War. During a civil war here then, we were sort of a player.

Q It was like a hot war with Cuba, a proxy war.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes. This was basically a proxy hot war with the Soviet Union.

So to go from that — and, by the way, that — yes, we recognize, you know, reestablished relations in 1993. But when I came here, you know, and started talking to the Angolan government just three, four years ago, the relationship was not this. Today, this is one of our strongest relationships in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. It’s one of our best friends. President Lourenço has been one of our truest allies. That is unimaginable (inaudible). It didn’t happen because we decided to go the usual route of aid. It happened — or political promises. It happened because they could see that we were making promises and we were keeping them at every step of the way.

The fact that we made over $3 billion of investments here that are meaningful investments to people in this country is what drove it.

And so, the blueprint here is: If you get more — with aid, you get a certain amount; you’ve done the right thing. You should continue to do it. But the investment strategy that many presidents have talked about trying to — how do you go from aid to trade, we’ve heard that from many presidents. But the ability to actually do it is so different. And that’s why I don’t take the cynical view of, “Oh, it’s the end of the administration, didn’t have to come, it’s not going to matter.” On the contrary. The one thing that I hear from Republicans consistently since the election is, “Can you talk to us more about this? How do we continue this?” People asking for what kind of jobs they need to create for this and so on.

So it’s not just my hard-to-hide enthusiasm for this project, but it is that I truly believe that this is a blueprint for the future.

And, by the way, we’ve copied this in other parts of the world. When was the last time we took something we did in Africa and then copied it elsewhere? We created a corridor in the Philippines that is entirely — together with Japan — just with — you know, the Luzon Corridor — just based on this.

And I think if we had more time — I think we’re trying to do the same thing in East Africa, in Liberia and in Ghana, building out data centers. I mean, that’s the competition with China. It’s not getting China — by the way, it’s not about getting China out of Africa. On the contrary. I would love China to invest more. But hopefully, when countries say, “Wait a minute, I can go to the United States and there’ll be no child labor, they’ll get higher wages, more investment in my country, and I won’t have crushing debt,” and tell the Chinese, “If you want to compete, give me a better offer.”

And so China, then, is investing in Africa at higher standards. Great. We’re not going to close the infrastructure gap in Africa with the United States and the G7 alone. I can promise you that. So having China here would be great, but not the way they’ve been doing business (inaudible).

Q Just one quick one. Has there been any progress in finding a buyer for that Congolese mine that was being sold to a Chinese buyer?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Chemaf?

Q Yes.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, one, they announced that — there was some announcement that it was sold, and then there was an announcement, “No, we didn’t sell it.” I think that the Congolese — you’d have to ask them, but they would like to make sure that their industry and their economy is diversified. They are having discussions with other companies. So it’s really not my place to speak for them.

MODERATOR: Thank you all. Thank you very much.

The post Background Press Gaggle by a Senior Administration Official on the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor appeared first on The White House.

Luanda, Angola

MODERATOR: Thank you all for joining for this gaggle. Everything will be attributed to a senior administration official, embargoed until 10:00 p.m. local time.

For your awareness, but not for your reporting, our SAO is [senior administration official]. [Senior administration official], we’ll turn it over to you for a few words at the top, after which we’ll take some questions.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: All right, thank you.

So, as you know, the President is going to travel to Lobito, Angola, tomorrow. I’ll go through kind of a little bit of the schedule and then go into more of the details.

He’ll arrive in Lobito. He’ll be joined by — at the Port of Lobito and be joined by President Lourenço of Angola, as well as the presidents of Zambia and DRC, as well as the vice president of Tanzania.

They will tour the port. From there, they will travel by car to a grain facility — production facility of a company called Carrinho — I’ll explain a little bit later who they are and what they are — where he will tour the facility. It’s an agribusiness company. He’ll tour the facility by the founder and CEO, Nelson Carrinho.

He will then, at that facility, will also meet and get briefed by a number of other company leaders of companies that the United States has financed here in Angola and along the Lobito Corridor, such as Africell, who, if you’ve been traveling around Angola, you’ve seen a lot of their signs. They’re a mobile telecommunications company, a U.S. company that just a couple of — a few years ago, there was only a monopoly here of the state-owned company. They entered with U.S. financing support. Today, they have a significant market share already. They are also expanding beyond Rwanda to make sure that people in rural Angola can go from 2G to 3G. 2G is no data; 3G is with data.

And actually, we’re going to — we will be announcing shortly some financing for them — package financing for them to support their growth into both neighboring countries along the Lobito Corridor and to expanding to 5G here in Angola.

There, he’ll also be greeted by the CEO of Sun Africa, which is a company that has received financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. They are building something along approximately 700 megawatts of solar power, in addition to some storage and mini grids. This is the largest U.S. investment in solar power in Africa, here in Angola. It will mean that Angola will have not only a significant portion of its energy from clean sources, but also give the ability to export clean energy to its neighboring countries.

He’ll also be meeting with a leader from a company called KoBold — it’s with a K; K-O-B-O-L-D, as in David — which is a mining company in Zambia. Initially, it’s an American company backed by a number of U.S. well-known financial institutions, including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Ventures. And they made a discovery, a copper discovery in Zambia. It was one of the largest copper discoveries. As you all know, copper is extremely important for both the chips development, as well as for electric vehicles and expanding the grid, which we will need because of the expansion of data centers.

He will also meet a leader from a company called Acrow Bridge. That’s A-C-R-O-W. They are based in Milton, Pennsylvania. They make pre-fabricated steel bridges, so it’s American steel, American jobs. It’s a unionized company. And they then deliver those bridges here in Angola. I believe the contract is for 186 steel bridges to be delivered here in Angola, and hopefully will expand their operations elsewhere. It’s a great story of creating jobs in America to deliver good commercial benefits here in Angola and in Africa writ large, again, receiving some commercial financing from U.S. government institutions.

After he visits with all these companies, he will then join a roundtable hosted by President Lourenço and President Biden, together with the presidents of Zambia, the DRC, and the vice president of Tanzania, and with, in addition, the CEO of the AFC, which is the Africa Finance Corporation, who is a partner in both leading the project, the Lobito Corridor project, a rail project, and is a — well, my understanding is will likely make a financial announcement — financial commitment announcement to the phase two of the project.

So why are we going to Lobito? Why is the President going to Lobito? So, the Lobito Corridor really is anchored in the Lobito port itself, which is the gateway in and out of Africa for the critical minerals industry and now for agriculture.

The premise behind the corridor is to be able to take American support and financial capabilities that are admittedly limited and to focus them more deeply in one area versus spreading that financial support and effort across many countries. So, instead of a little bit of human and financial resource across the whole continent, choosing corridors where we can have the largest impact.

The Lobito Corridor was the test case for this approach, not just for Africa but globally, and has been a very successful proof point in that theory.

The rail is a refurbishment of a rail that goes from the Lobito port all the way to the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and nearby the border of Zambia, and extends all the way to eastern Congo. This means that a cargo of cobalt or copper that takes about 45 days to get from eastern Congo or Zambia to the market by going through Durban, South Africa — by truck, it takes about 45 days. This will take somewhere in the 40 to 50 hours to go the same distance. That is a remarkable not only cut in time, but cut in cost and the ability to get to market, which will then serve to cut the cost, eventually, of batteries and EVS or chips, et cetera.

So that is the first piece of what the Lobito Corridor does.

The reason the mining industry is so important in this is because by booking capacity in this rail, it makes it more financeable, more commercial. Nothing in what is happening in the Lobito Corridor is aid. It is all about making things commercial, financeable, and for-profit so that they’re actually sustainable for a long period of time and has the ability to have maintenance on it and so on.

So, getting the critical minerals out is not only an objective to help the United States diversify the supply chain, but it also means that now higher-standard companies from around the world are coming back into the industry in Africa for the first time. So, for many years, the higher-value companies were leaving, and instead, the mining was being done by companies who perhaps have lower standards across — whether it’s labor, environment, transparency, corruption — and now you’re starting to see higher-end companies with a better set of standards. KoBold is a good example of that. There are others now that are in final negotiations to come back into countries that they left only recently.

But once we wanted to work on the corridor, the President wanted to make sure we weren’t doing this on one issue alone of critical minerals, but rather how do we use this to raise GDP and support for countries along the corridor. What you’ll see is, beyond the investment that I just discussed, like Africell and the others, laying fiber-optic cable in Angola and along the rail to expand Internet connectivity, faster connectivity across a larger swath of land.

Countries that are land-locked, like Zambia and DRC, to a large degree, have a hard time raising their ability to feed themselves and to bring products to not only international markets, but even to their neighbors.

So, the rail suddenly opens up the ability to deliver commodities and food stuffs and equipment into — all the way to eastern Congo and Zambia. Both countries, Zambia and DRC, have fresh water, have arable land, and yet are importers of food.

What you’ll see in this facility that the President is going to go to, where the roundtable is going to be Carrinho, is the company that has built silos for storage so that you can get food crops into cold storage so they can last longer, which means that he is able to go to farmers across Angola and say, “Anything that you can farm, I will purchase,” and then be able to deliver. That has reduced the dependency of Angola already on certain products from a 100 percent dependency on imports to near zero and expanding.

So we’re working with — the U.S. government with Carrinho. How do you expand that into the broader region, into Zambia, into DRC, so that along the rail, now, if you’re in Zambia and you have the Zambezi River that has an enormous amount of fresh water, and yet they are importing food — if the agriculture there can be developed from small farms to large farms, and be able to sell into this corridor, we’re not only expanding it for critical minerals, but suddenly this corridor is now solving food security concerns across the corridor.

So this is the overview of why the President has gone not only all the way to Angola, but all the way to Lobito. And it’s a major investment for the U.S. The PGI initiative that we’ve talked to you about before is an initiative that is the leader in this.

Under this presidency, we’ve already spent, in this corridor alone, nearly $4 billion, but that’s just U.S. There’s a lot of other participants in this. The EU is coming in. The Italian government has provided, I think, $320 million of investment. The Africa Finance Corporation, as well as the Africa Development Bank, are all part of this and growing.

So, this is going to be a multibillion-dollar investment in lasting infrastructure that will not only not only build up these businesses, but bring about a change in attitude that the President mentioned in his public remarks today of increasing the transparency, increasing the standards of labor, increasing the environmental protection standards, all that have been — really, this continent has suffered enormously from investments that have not cared about any of those things and has taken the resources out and left behind no better economies, no advanced communities.

And so, the idea behind this corridor is that it will ensure that it doesn’t only come to take resources, but rather build up GDP, build up communities, build up towns, and increase the level of economic development for the towns and the communities around these businesses, as well as the country as a whole, while not adding crushing debt terms the way they have with other investors.

I will stop there.

MODERATOR: Great. With that, we’ll take a few questions, and we’re hoping to keep it focused on the visit tomorrow.

Q So, as far as just the rail project in particular, the big kind of new financial commitment is the AFC announcement, right?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, DFC, we haven’t formally announced it; we’ve talked about the (inaudible). But DFC, the Development Finance Corporation in the United States, has approved a $553 million package. And I won’t speak to what the AFC will announce tomorrow. That’s up to them.

Q Gotcha. And is that specifically for phase two?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That’s for phase two.

So what we did was the United States came in with phase one at $553 million, and that was good enough for the two European companies that are building the rail and operating it, in addition to us helping them get secured usage commitments of the rail. That’s at phase one. Once the world saw that we were serious about this, it sort of paved the way for everyone to be like, “Oh, this thing is actually for real.” And then they came in and supported, specifically after the President made a big push at the G7 last year that unlocked a lot of financing from others.

Q Can I just look forward to AGOA? What is the future of this rail corridor and AGOA? I know that’s up to Congress. But do you see that some of these countries that are eligible for AGOA — Zambia, Congo, and Angola — could expand their AGOA exports? And do you have a roadmap for that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think there’s no doubt that should Congress expand AGOA, that this would be a benefit. I think the point here is that it would support these countries’ ability to increase their exports, and will allow them to be not only connected to global markets for exports, but actually to other African markets. So, there is a critical need for Africa to be connected not only to the world and to itself. And so, the President spoke about it today. We talk a lot about it in aviation, where sometimes you have to fly very far away to go to your neighboring country, but having the critical infrastructure.

So, hopefully AGOA can strengthen it. But this is not reliant on AGOA. AGOA will just be a increase in support for it.

Q Right. But AGOA is, like, value-added products, and this rail line is going to bring in, like, raw materials. Is this is going to give an opportunity for these countries to export value-added products?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So I disagree with the premise that it’s for raw products. There is — right now, only raw product is coming out. But I think what this rail does — an increased — in order to get to higher-value products, you need a few things. One of them is affordable and reliable and abundant energy. So, the build-out of the energy system allows you to then build the value added.

And I fully expect — we are already discussing with companies that are looking — I can’t announce it for them, but I would assume in the next weeks and months you’ll see some of the companies, the mining companies and other service companies, building out infrastructure to create value added. So instead of just the raw material, you’ll be ultimately exporting something. Now, I can’t tell you how far up the chain it will be refined, but I think there’s a lot of refinement to be done here in Africa.

Q And on just the fi- — so the investment from the DFC, it’s $553 million?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes.

Q That’s what’s coming tomorrow?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That is part of the — when we talk about the over $3 billion of support in Angola, and then I think nearly or over $4 billion in total for the Lobito Corridor, the President is going to announce tomorrow an additional $600 million in financing for projects for the broader Lobito Corridor, and that takes you above the
number that we had talked about today.

Q Got it. So, additional $600 million is what (inaudible).

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah. But that’s not
just for rail. That’s for the broader — and not just in Angola; that’s for the broader corridor.

Q So that’s separate from the 553 (inaudible).

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Correct.

Q Yeah, I just want to make sure that they’re separate.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The $553 million is for the rail itself, a phase one rail in Angola. And then there are all kinds of things that we’re doing to support the broader corridor. Some of that’s what I talked about — Africell, Sun Africa, the feasibility study that we have to do for the phase two. Phase two is essentially building the entire rail system inside Zambia, which we are pretty far along on the planning of that. We expect shovels on the ground by the end of 2025 or early 2026. And there’s a lot of work that goes into identifying routes. Do a brand-new greenfield rail.

So the part from Angola all the way to east Congo is already being used. And then phase two is much more expansive, more ambitious. I should say there’s a phase three, which is then connecting it onwards all the way to Tanzania. That’s why the vice president of Tanzania is going to be here.

Q Okay, got it. And then, just wanted to — can you just talk about what this financing looks like going forward, with President-elect Trump coming in? And the dollars that have already been allocated to the project, can you kind of detail how it’s being spent, how much has been spent already? Like, I don’t know if you can kind of break that down.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, I think the most important way to tie the two ends of your question is to say that the money that I’m referring to, most of it has gone through the process already. It’s been approved. The ones that require congressional notification have already been congressionally notified. They have finished their notification periods. They have not had any holds. There is broad bipartisan support for these projects.

And, look, at the end of the day, if you want to talk about living in an era of global competition, specifically with China, this Lobito Corridor is the heart of that. You can’t stand up and say I want to compete with China — not adversary, but compete with China — and not support what’s happening here, which is why I have every confi- — which is why it’s had bipartisan support already across Congress, and why I have every expectation that when the new administration comes in, they will — I don’t know how many things they will continue around the world, but I believe they will continue this project because it is good for American national security, it’s good for American economic security, and it builds on what a Republican-controlled Congress during the Trump administration, which is to build that, that created the DFC for this kind of purpose.

And we’ve had Republican staff, Republican members of Congress, senators who’ve been to Angola, DRC recently. These are members who’ve never traveled to Angola before, but this is why they’re coming here. So, I think there is quite a bit of support for this.

Q Sorry, just a clarifying question. The $553 million, that’s for phase one, not two?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Correct.

Q How long will this take? You said that the Tanzania point — I mean, shovels in the ground for part of it, starting in 2025.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Zambia. Zambia.

Q Right. And then, the Tanzania is like the long goal. And right now, there’s a portion that’s already being used to east Congo.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right. This is all going to be in pieces. So, nothing is going to — this is not a “we wait until a big reveal and something all works.”

So we had a test cargo a couple months ago that went from east DRC all the way to Lobito. It doesn’t mean the rail is fully operational yet, but we wanted to see how it works. So that’s how I can tell you how many hours it takes, because we had that test cargo. That will, probably in the next year or so, will be — the work inside Angola will be complete, next year-ish. Right around that time is when the shovel is going to go in the ground in Zambia. Again, the feasibility study is now done, and now we have to do all the other project preparation, which, again, is expensive and takes time.

There’s already pieces of rail that exist if you go further east. So now it’s about, Patrick, how do you make sure that all the rails connect to each other. So you don’t have to build the whole way to Tanzania; you just have to build the spurs that interlink the rail that already exists all the way to the port in Tanzania. So, that will give you that — what the President said in his comments at the Slavery Museum — of connecting for the very first time a truly transcontinental (inaudible).

Q What’s the prediction for that, for it being (inaudible)?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t know. I think it’s hard for me to make that prediction. I think if all goes well, which construction projects sometimes do and sometimes don’t, I would say Zambia would then take probably two, three years to complete, and then — but some of the rest of the work could happen simultaneous, concurrently with the Zambia work. The Chinese are involved in a TAZARA section, which is they’re partnered with Zambia and Tanzania on part of that. And so that will connect into this. So we’ll have a lot of different pieces to this rail.

So my guess is, by the end of the decade, you can have a really fully functioning rail that goes coast to coast.

Q And do you hear frequently from these countries that you’ve been working with on the Lobito Corridor that they don’t have secure investments from their other investment partners? That’s been a big theme of what we’ve been hearing about. Without explicitly saying the names of the other partners, (inaudible) more reliable?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I’m sorry, who are the other partners?

Q China and Russia. That the U.S. would be a more reliable investor. That’s what the U.S. is offering. Do you hear from these leaders that some of these other investments are falling short; that they need somebody to come in and be reliable?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think that the investment from the United States versus from others, it’s not about more or less, it’s about different. We hear a lot about others coming in with very large checks, build a lot of stuff, but that is with high interest rates on the debt, the terms are really difficult, and it doesn’t come with any of the commitments to their society.

And so, what you see happen — and again, the President mentioned in the speech today — 10 years, 5 years later, 10 years later, you go to a country, whether it’s here in Sub-Saharan Africa or in Southeast Asia or South Asia, or even Latin America — I mean, look what’s happened. The resource is gone, right? They’ve taken it out. But there’s — the debt in the early years is low interest rates, and then it expands with time. In some cases, it’s over 11 percent, which is crushing. And there’s no support for the local communities where these investments are.

Now, politicians today are wise enough to know that “my predecessor left me this debt and a community that is anti-investment,” because they’ve seen that their kids are working in these facilities, or they’re getting paid a dollar a day. They know their drinking water is worse because nobody is providing security into making sure that they’re not polluting all the waterways or moving rivers.

So what they’re looking for is a different kind of investment that guarantees the opposite of all those things. And what I hear from heads of state, you know, consistently, is, “I don’t want the other investments, but if I have to choose between a Chinese investment and no investment, I will choose a Chinese investment every day of the week, or the Russian.”

So if you give us a choice, we’ll be there. And what the President committed at the African Leaders Summit was to create a different offer, and that’s what he charged me with trying to implement, and that’s what he’s done. And that’s why President Lourenço said today in his opening comments to the President, “You lived up to your word. You gave us your word at the leaders conference, and you’ve actually lived up to it with what you’ve done.”

Q Can I follow up on something you just said, that the hope is that this will attract, like, higher-quality investments. But how — is there a mechanism in place to verify that the companies that will take part in this project, like actually have higher standards regarding, like, labor rights, environment, transparency, et cetera?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, there is. I mean, the whole point of the U.S. participating in this is that part of the DFC or Ex-Im Bank or MCC or USAID, any of these organizations in the U.S. government, they vet the companies for that kind of action, and not just before they give the loan facilities or debt facilities, but rather during the project itself.

Second, with the fact that the U.S. government is saying we are effectively putting the American flag on these projects, we have a responsibility. And so, there’s a continued U.S. — you know, shining a light on these projects to make sure that it is done in the proper manner.

MODERATOR: We have time for just a couple more.

Q You know, I know this was supposed to come earlier, and the hurricane sort of derailed everything, but is there a fear that this is coming so late in the administration that even though this is, you know, good work that’s going to certainly have a lasting impact, that it’s going to be overshadowed by the President leaving office?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t think so at all. Look, the President was supposed to be here earlier, but I don’t think it makes any difference.

What’s being highlighted here, guys, is the — you know, we’re so used to the cynical of “government comes and we tout.” This is, like, literally, a transformative initiative for the United States that I think it’s not about whether the Trump administration is going to continue it, which I have very little doubt, but rather, I think this is the playbook for administrations to come.

There are a lot of things that we’ve done around the world. I mean, PEPFAR is, I think, George W. Bush, and we’re still talking about what a great initiative that was. Everybody thinks the DFC was a very good thing globally.

So, yes, from administration to administration, some things get carried on. So, I truly believe that this is something transformative.

But look at the politics of this. And I don’t want people to miss this: Nobody — when I came this morning to the palace, before the arrival ceremony, the ministers that I was talking to, the one thing that every single one of them separately said to me, “What we’ve been talking about is that no one in this country, at our age, would have believed that the United States would be here, the president of the United States would be here,” based on the relationship that we once had. We weren’t just on the other side of the Cold War. We were very much on the other side of the Cold War. During a civil war here then, we were sort of a player.

Q It was like a hot war with Cuba, a proxy war.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes. This was basically a proxy hot war with the Soviet Union.

So to go from that — and, by the way, that — yes, we recognize, you know, reestablished relations in 1993. But when I came here, you know, and started talking to the Angolan government just three, four years ago, the relationship was not this. Today, this is one of our strongest relationships in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. It’s one of our best friends. President Lourenço has been one of our truest allies. That is unimaginable (inaudible). It didn’t happen because we decided to go the usual route of aid. It happened — or political promises. It happened because they could see that we were making promises and we were keeping them at every step of the way.

The fact that we made over $3 billion of investments here that are meaningful investments to people in this country is what drove it.

And so, the blueprint here is: If you get more — with aid, you get a certain amount; you’ve done the right thing. You should continue to do it. But the investment strategy that many presidents have talked about trying to — how do you go from aid to trade, we’ve heard that from many presidents. But the ability to actually do it is so different. And that’s why I don’t take the cynical view of, “Oh, it’s the end of the administration, didn’t have to come, it’s not going to matter.” On the contrary. The one thing that I hear from Republicans consistently since the election is, “Can you talk to us more about this? How do we continue this?” People asking for what kind of jobs they need to create for this and so on.

So it’s not just my hard-to-hide enthusiasm for this project, but it is that I truly believe that this is a blueprint for the future.

And, by the way, we’ve copied this in other parts of the world. When was the last time we took something we did in Africa and then copied it elsewhere? We created a corridor in the Philippines that is entirely — together with Japan — just with — you know, the Luzon Corridor — just based on this.

And I think if we had more time — I think we’re trying to do the same thing in East Africa, in Liberia and in Ghana, building out data centers. I mean, that’s the competition with China. It’s not getting China — by the way, it’s not about getting China out of Africa. On the contrary. I would love China to invest more. But hopefully, when countries say, “Wait a minute, I can go to the United States and there’ll be no child labor, they’ll get higher wages, more investment in my country, and I won’t have crushing debt,” and tell the Chinese, “If you want to compete, give me a better offer.”

And so China, then, is investing in Africa at higher standards. Great. We’re not going to close the infrastructure gap in Africa with the United States and the G7 alone. I can promise you that. So having China here would be great, but not the way they’ve been doing business (inaudible).

Q Just one quick one. Has there been any progress in finding a buyer for that Congolese mine that was being sold to a Chinese buyer?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Chemaf?

Q Yes.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, one, they announced that — there was some announcement that it was sold, and then there was an announcement, “No, we didn’t sell it.” I think that the Congolese — you’d have to ask them, but they would like to make sure that their industry and their economy is diversified. They are having discussions with other companies. So it’s really not my place to speak for them.

MODERATOR: Thank you all. Thank you very much.

The post Background Press Gaggle by a Senior Administration Official on the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor appeared first on The White House.

Today, the United States and Angola are co-hosting a Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor Summit, bringing together leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, and Zambia, as well as the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).  The leaders will affirm their commitment to continue developing the Corridor and invest in infrastructure to connect the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  They will further pledge to accelerate the next phase of the Corridor with the new Zambia-Lobito rail project.  The Summit will underscore the importance of enabling sustainable private sector investments that unlock inclusive economic growth and sustainable development for local and regional communities.
 
Through PGI—a bipartisan initiative in partnership with G7+, for strategic, values-driven, and high-standard infrastructure and investment in low- and middle-income countries—the United States and our partners aim to positively impact people’s lives, strengthen and diversify our supply chains, protect workers, and advance shared national security interests.  The flagship Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, anchored in core rail investments, is a transformative economic corridor that connects the region and accelerates trade and the growth of key sectors supporting the economic diversification and development priorities of African leaders.  The United States is working with partners around the world to replicate the success of the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor and help bridge the global infrastructure gap.
 
In September 2024, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the completion of an initial feasibility study and launch of the environmental and social impact assessment for the Zambia-Lobito rail project, a greenfield 800-kilometer rail line being built from scratch linking Angola and Zambia for the first time.  Together, these studies ensure the project is economically and financially viable and will be delivered following international best practices on labor, community participation, and environmental protection.  AFC, Angola, and Zambia also celebrated the signing of the concession agreement, which allows the next phase of development to continue.  The target date to break ground is early 2026.
 
Today, President Biden is announcing $600 million in new funding for infrastructure projects along the Corridor, bringing the total for U.S. investments to more than $4 billion. With these announcements and together with G7 partners and regional development banks, international investment in the Lobito Corridor has exceeded $6 billion. These investments will be  mobilized towards new and continuing projects that support the economic potential and development impacts of the Corridor across multiple interconnected sectors, including transportation and logistics, agriculture, clean energy and associated supply chains, health, and digital access.
 
Transportation and Logistics
 
Rail and other transportation and logistics-related infrastructure forms the backbone of the Corridor and will enable expanded trade and business growth.  While these investments are traditionally public-sector investments, the United States through PGI is supporting commercially driven projects that lock-in efficiency and sustainable maintenance over the long-term.
 

• Following the due diligence announced by President Biden in May 2023, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is announcing the commitment of a $553 million direct loan to the Lobito Atlantic Railway to upgrade and operate a 1,300-kilometer rail line from the Lobito port to the Angolan town of Luau on the DRC border.  This investment supports the anchor rail investment of the first phase of the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor and is the backbone on which additional high-quality investments in agriculture, healthcare, energy, and financial services will be built.  The Lobito Atlantic Railway’s operational improvements have already scaled up the number of freight shipments from once per month to two times per week.

• The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Angolan Ministry of Transportation are signing a MOU to support new personnel and IT equipment, with the aim of helping the Ministry leverage private investment in Angola’s infrastructure and development.  This followed the approximately $1 million grant announced earlier in 2024 by the USAID to assist the Ministry.

• The anchor rail line of the second phase of the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, the new Zambia-Lobito rail project, was launched in October 2023, with the AFC as the lead project developer.  Building on AFC’s initial $5 million for feasibility studies and project development, AFC is announcing its commitment to anchor and mobilize up to $500 million through various financial instruments to ensure the project reaches financial close, in line with its prior track record.  The announcement complements a technical assistance grant the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded to AFC in September 2024 for an environmental and social impact assessment to facilitate this effort and to move the project towards financial close.

• In October 2024, KoBold Metals, a U.S. company applying artificial intelligence to develop a critical minerals site in Zambia, signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with AFC committing to anchor the commercial viability of the Zambia-Lobito rail project with more than 300,000 tons of copper per year from its Mingoma mine.  AFC will collaborate with KoBold to support the Mingomba project, through a combination of project development funding, equity, or debt financing as required.

• AFC signed MOUs this month totaling an additional 170,000 tons of minimum freight commitments from Zambian mining projects including from Kobaloni Energy, which is planning to construct the first cobalt sulphate refinery on the African continent, and First Quantum Minerals, one of the world’s top ten copper producers.  These commitments will help the new Zambia-Lobito rail project raise capital at a lower cost.  The MOUs also represent start of creating a diversified supply chain route for the critical minerals that support the global energy transition.

• Since 1995, the United States has provided over $164 million for humanitarian demining in Angola.  This lifesaving assistance plays a critical role in bolstering human security, providing safe access to land for economic development, and facilitating environmental conservation in the Okavango River Basin. The U.S. Department of State announced a total of $9 million in de-mining assistance over the next two years that will facilitate rail construction along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, as well as other economic development goals across Angola, as part of a multi-year campaign for Angola to achieve mine-free status.  With a $10 million match from the Government of Angola, implementing partners will be able to clear the mines left from Angola’s decades-long civil war, enabling the land to be recultivated for farming and other uses.

• In December 2023, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board of Directors selected Tanzania to develop a threshold program.  MCC and the Government of Tanzania are now developing a trade and investment program to facilitate trade between Tanzania and its neighbors and address trade barriers.  The program is scheduled to launch in late 2025 and builds on MCC’s more than $700 million in prior investments in governance, transportation, energy, and water in Tanzania.

 
Agriculture

In support of U.S. efforts to accelerate agricultural-led economic growth in Angola and our partners across the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, the United States is investing in value-added food processing and connecting farmers to global markets.  These investments also deliver on President Biden’s commitment under the U.S.-Africa Partnership to Promote Food Security and Resilient Food Systems, to step up our investments to build more resilient food systems in Africa and to unlock Africa’s enormous agriculture production potential.
 

• Today, President Biden will meet with businesses that are investing in the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor enabled by U.S. support.  He will visit the Lobito production facilities of the Carrinho Group, Angola’s largest food producer, which is rapidly expanding the network of family farmers from whom it sources raw produce for products sold across the country.  President Biden will celebrate the first shipment of Carrinho food products along the Lobito Atlantic Railway line to be sold in the DRC, supporting regional food security.  To enhance agriculture expansion, USAID has partnered with Carrinho through an existing $5.5 million program and public-private partnership focused on women’s empowerment, to facilitate the offtake of grain and crops grown by communities along the Corridor.  In November 2024, DFC signed a non-binding Letter of Interest to explore a loan that would support Carrinho to purchase and install grain storage equipment to reach more farmers along the rail Corridor and key hubs.  Complementing these investments is the previously announced Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) financing to build 186 rural bridges.  This financing will further support thousands of smallholder farmers to participate in this sustainable agriculture value-chain as Carrinho grows its farmer network to two million farmers by 2030.

• The African Development Bank is announcing its intention to finance $370 million across three agriculture projects facilitating regional trade and food security and promoting sustainable commercial agriculture value chains.  These projects are expected to mobilize an additional $100 million in private sector capital and will enhance food security, promote the economic inclusion of local communities, including small- and medium-sized enterprises, and create jobs in agriculture and other sectors along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.  To accelerate implementation, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will make a $3 million commitment to the Bank to support project preparation and feasibility work.  This complements the Bank’s November 2023 $500 million commitment to invest in the Zambia-Lobito rail project, and adds to the $289 million agricultural value chain and transport infrastructure project in the DRC it financed in July 2024.  This brings the Bank’s total investment in the Corridor to more than $1 billion over the past 12 months.

• In October 2024, a U.S. consortium led by Amer-Con Corporation signed an MOU with ARCCLA, the Angolan public entity within the Ministry of Transportation responsible for the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, to build and operate silo terminals and collection points on planned logistics platforms along the Corridor and nationwide.  The project will focus on staple crops such as corn, rice, soybean, and wheat.  This project will boost local production, enhance food security and stimulate economic growth as part of the National Network of Grain Silos strategy, which aims to achieve a 2.2-million-ton storage capacity and reduce post-harvest losses.

• In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) committed nearly $300 million that will use U.S. commodities to help strengthen food security across Africa.  These programs provide critical school meals and literacy programming and are facilitating agricultural economic development in nine African countries, including Angola, and Tanzania.  In Angola, USDA will work with World Vision through a $27.5 million McGovern-Dole agreement to provide school meals for more than 80,000 beneficiaries in three provinces.  The project will provide more than 5,000 metric tons in nutritious U.S. commodities and more than 4,000 metric tons of locally procured fruits and vegetables to support the school meals and literacy programming in eight municipalities across the Benguela, Cunene, and Huila provinces.  In Tanzania, USDA will work with Lutheran World Relief through a more than $35 million Food for Progress agreement to support food security for 30,000 beneficiaries through the implementation of climate smart agricultural practices in the poultry sector for smallholder farmers.

• In October 2024, the MCC signed a $458 million compact program with Zambia focused on catalyzing inclusive economic growth in the agriculture and agro-processing sectors.  The program, which includes an additional $33 million contribution from the Government of Zambia, aims to lower the cost of transporting farm products and processed goods to markets, increase the availability of equipment for small and medium farmers and processors, increase financing for infrastructure projects that support agriculture, and catalyze reforms in the agriculture sector to attract greater private investment.  The compact will build on MCC’s $378 million in prior investments in Zambia to remove barriers to trade and improve water infrastructure, distribution, and reforms.

• In September 2024, DFC committed a $5 million loan to Community Markets for Conservation Limited in Zambia to expand its food processing business to support the adoption of sustainable, conservation-based practices in rural Zambia.  This builds on DFC’s $10 million loan to Seba Foods Zambia Ltd., which was announced at the PGI Lusaka Investment Forum in February 2024.  DFC also reached a commitment on a $6 million USAID-sponsored loan portfolio guarantee for Angolan company Kixicrédito S.A. that will support lending to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises targeting the agriculture sector, including firms along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.

 
Clean Energy 
 
Africa has approximately 39 percent of the world’s renewable energy potential.  The United States is committed to supporting the growing energy needs of people and businesses across the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor with renewable sources that power communities and industry.
 

• The United States supports Angola’s objective to generate 73 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2027 as well as current and anticipated energy needs across the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor as new companies and sectors develop.  Through PGI, the Department of State is providing technical assistance to strengthen the Angolan government’s capacity to meet national energy goals, reduce greenhouse gases, and expand access to electricity.

• In Angola, U.S. company Sun Africa, is part of a historic EXIM financing commitment of over $2.4 billion connecting a million Angolans to clean electricity.  This second phase of the project includes an additional 320 megawatts from distributed minigrid systems across four southern provinces alongside clean drinking water projects.  Sun Africa is receiving support from Power Africa, and has received support from a number of Power Africa interagency partners, including USAID, the Department of Commerce, the State Department, and EXIM.

• Through USAID’s Empower Southern Africa program under Power Africa, the United States plans to enter a formal partnership with the Angolan National Transmission Company to realize important cross-border and domestic transmission lines that will help integrate Angola into the Southern and Central Africa Power Pools and supply electricity to the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor. USAID is launching a new $1.5 million grant from the Power Africa Opportunity Fund to provide solar powered irrigation and refrigeration equipment to support farming communities along the Corridor.

• In September 2024, DFC committed a $40 million liquidity facility to Africa GreenCo, a company operating in Zambia that is expanding renewable energy access.  Africa GreenCo procures renewable electricity through power purchase agreements from independent power producers to sell on the Southern African Power Pool, to both public utilities and private sector buyers.  DFC’s support will help provide a credit enhancement to Africa GreenCo, enabling it to establish a track record as an energy aggregator and trader.

• To accelerate private investment in African infrastructure projects, and in the Lobito Corridor in particular, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will make a $4.2 million contribution to the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA) via the African Development Bank, one of the partners collaborating on the development of the Lobito Corridor.  AGIA aims to mobilize private capital at a rate of 20 times donor contributions, meaning that our contribution should catalyze approximately $100 million to build quality, sustainable infrastructure projects.

 
Critical Minerals Supply Chains 
 
Africa will play a central role in the global energy transition and the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor is rich in the critical minerals that will power the 21stcentury.  The United States is committed to ensuring reliable supply chains by supporting the development of this sector with environmentally respectful processing so more of the value is captured on the continent.
 

• Through the Kabanga Nickel project, LifeZone Metals Ltd., a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is investing in bringing critical mineral value addition to Tanzania.  Their support of the development of the Kahama special economic zone, which will include a first of its kind nickel processing facility in the region, can serve as a hub and training center for Tanzanians working across the clean the energy supply chain.  In August 2024, DFC signed a retainer letter with Kabanga Nickel Limited, a subsidiary of Lifezone Metals Ltd., to begin due diligence on political risk insurance to support the Kabanga Nickel underground nickel-copper-cobalt mine site and the Kahama Hydromet refinery site.  In September 2024, DFC also signed a non-binding letter of interest with Kabanga Nickel Limited expressing DFC’s interest in considering a potential direct loan to support the project.

• The United States and Angola are collaborating on principled investments to advance critical minerals projects along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor through technical assistance to prepare new operations to secure future debt or equity financing.  During the June 2024 U.S.-Angola Energy Security Dialogue, the Department of State and Angola agreed to elevate our critical mineral partnership.  In September 2024, Pensana PLC received a $3.4 million grant from DFC to fund a feasibility study to double the capacity of its Longonio rare earths mine, design in-country refining capacity, and conduct test work on new ore bodies.  It also includes a $3.2 million DFC technical assistance grant to Chillerton to support the development of a green copper mining project in Zambia.

• USAID, the State Department, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is announcing $2 million in technical assistance for responsible development and management of Angola’s mining sector.  In November 2023, USGS and the Angolan Geological Institute (IGEO) signed an MOU to enhance scientific collaboration.  This partnership will foster transparency and attract principled investment in Angola’s mineral sector through a three-year program to analyze and interpret newly acquired geoscience data to document Angola’s critical mineral potential while building capacity within the IGEO.

 
Health 
 
The United States is committed to expanding access to health care and strengthening health security, including through PGI investments in health-related infrastructure in the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.
 

• The United States and Angola are working together to help accelerate development progress in Angola, including by mobilizing critical investments in Angola’s health infrastructure under PGI.  To support the Angolan government’s priorities in a fiscally responsible manner, DFC has committed to providing up to $150 million in political risk insurance for new water treatment plants to expand access to potable water to underserved communities in southern Angola.  This will further expand DFC’s portfolio of investments in Angola – more than $700 million in commitments – all of which have been committed during the Biden-Harris Administration.

 
Digital Access
 
Access to high-speed internet and associated digital resources helps fuel technological and economic innovation in Africa.  The United States is committed to connecting citizens and businesses across the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor with highly reliable and trusted vendor technology.
 

• In alignment with the Digital Transformation with Africa initiative, the United States is investing in Angola’s digital architecture, supporting reliable telecommunication networks—using trusted vendors—that will benefit the Angolan people and improve Angola’s digital connectivity to the global economy.  EXIM announced a non-binding, preliminary board commitment to provide $100 million financing for U.S.-owned telecommunications company Africell to expand its high quality, reliable, and affordable wireless cell service to all corners of Angola and upgrade equipment in the DRC with trusted vendor technology.  This builds on USAID’s 2023 launch of a nearly $5 million “Dinheiro Digital é Melhor” or “Mobile Money is Better” project with Africell to spur the development of a vibrant and secure mobile money and digital finance ecosystem in Angola.  USAID and partners are connecting approximately 12,000 new mobile phone users to the Afrimoney platform per month, with 240,000 new users joining in 2024.  In combination with financial literacy training and policy engagement with Angola’s government, USAID and partners are breaking down barriers and reaching those previously excluded from the formal financial system.

• To date, USTDA has provided $13.2 million in funding to prepare digital, transportation, and clean energy projects that will help develop the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.  These activities are designed to help unlock several billion dollars in financing and deploy innovative U.S. technologies for the Trans-Africa Corridor’s implementation.

• In November 2024, USTDA awarded a feasibility study grant to Javilian Civils (Proprietary) Limited to support the deployment of terrestrial fiber and access infrastructure connecting inland locations in Central and Southern Africa with subsea cables along the Atlantic Coast.  The project will ultimately increase internet connectivity in Angola, the DRC, and Namibia.

• In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce led a large whole-of-government delegation to the NewSpace Africa Conference held in Angola, representing a growing US interest in space-related cooperation and trade, and in engaging African nations in development of norms for satellite operations.  Part of the Commerce Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offers a wide range of free, open source data, information, and tools that are available to help businesses, communities, and nations address climate adaptation and mitigation, sea-level rise, flooding, coral reef monitoring, and space weather, including a range of early-warning systems for weather, climate, and hydrological disasters.

 
Investment 
 
PGI leverages public funds to unlock private capital investment.  In the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, the United States is supporting sustainable economic growth by helping secure investment for firms across many sectors and sizes.

• In September 2024, DFC committed a $13 million equity investment in the African Rivers Fund IV, which will support small and medium-sized businesses in frontier markets in Central and Southern Africa, including Angola, the DRC, and Zambia.

• To promote U.S. investment in Angola, the DRC, and Zambia, Prosper Africa is providing roughly $600,000 of transaction advisory services to firms along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.  These services aim to connect local firms, accelerate economic progress, and increase local and regional involvement in the growing economy around the Corridor.

• Through the United States’ Economic Resilience Initiative, USAID will help advance the economic opportunities presented by the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor for inclusive growth.  Working with Congress, $4.5 million will support workforce development that matches private sector needs and the industrialization of agricultural inputs and outputs for regional export markets along the Corridor.

 
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The post FACT SHEET: Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment in the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor appeared first on The White House.

Today, the United States and Angola are co-hosting a Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor Summit, bringing together leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, and Zambia, as well as the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).  The leaders will affirm their commitment to continue developing the Corridor and invest in infrastructure to connect the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  They will further pledge to accelerate the next phase of the Corridor with the new Zambia-Lobito rail project.  The Summit will underscore the importance of enabling sustainable private sector investments that unlock inclusive economic growth and sustainable development for local and regional communities.
 
Through PGI—a bipartisan initiative in partnership with G7+, for strategic, values-driven, and high-standard infrastructure and investment in low- and middle-income countries—the United States and our partners aim to positively impact people’s lives, strengthen and diversify our supply chains, protect workers, and advance shared national security interests.  The flagship Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, anchored in core rail investments, is a transformative economic corridor that connects the region and accelerates trade and the growth of key sectors supporting the economic diversification and development priorities of African leaders.  The United States is working with partners around the world to replicate the success of the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor and help bridge the global infrastructure gap.
 
In September 2024, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the completion of an initial feasibility study and launch of the environmental and social impact assessment for the Zambia-Lobito rail project, a greenfield 800-kilometer rail line being built from scratch linking Angola and Zambia for the first time.  Together, these studies ensure the project is economically and financially viable and will be delivered following international best practices on labor, community participation, and environmental protection.  AFC, Angola, and Zambia also celebrated the signing of the concession agreement, which allows the next phase of development to continue.  The target date to break ground is early 2026.
 
Today, President Biden is announcing $600 million in new funding for infrastructure projects along the Corridor, bringing the total for U.S. investments to more than $4 billion. With these announcements and together with G7 partners and regional development banks, international investment in the Lobito Corridor has exceeded $6 billion. These investments will be  mobilized towards new and continuing projects that support the economic potential and development impacts of the Corridor across multiple interconnected sectors, including transportation and logistics, agriculture, clean energy and associated supply chains, health, and digital access.
 
Transportation and Logistics
 
Rail and other transportation and logistics-related infrastructure forms the backbone of the Corridor and will enable expanded trade and business growth.  While these investments are traditionally public-sector investments, the United States through PGI is supporting commercially driven projects that lock-in efficiency and sustainable maintenance over the long-term.
 

• Following the due diligence announced by President Biden in May 2023, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is announcing the commitment of a $553 million direct loan to the Lobito Atlantic Railway to upgrade and operate a 1,300-kilometer rail line from the Lobito port to the Angolan town of Luau on the DRC border.  This investment supports the anchor rail investment of the first phase of the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor and is the backbone on which additional high-quality investments in agriculture, healthcare, energy, and financial services will be built.  The Lobito Atlantic Railway’s operational improvements have already scaled up the number of freight shipments from once per month to two times per week.

• The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Angolan Ministry of Transportation are signing a MOU to support new personnel and IT equipment, with the aim of helping the Ministry leverage private investment in Angola’s infrastructure and development.  This followed the approximately $1 million grant announced earlier in 2024 by the USAID to assist the Ministry.

• The anchor rail line of the second phase of the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, the new Zambia-Lobito rail project, was launched in October 2023, with the AFC as the lead project developer.  Building on AFC’s initial $5 million for feasibility studies and project development, AFC is announcing its commitment to anchor and mobilize up to $500 million through various financial instruments to ensure the project reaches financial close, in line with its prior track record.  The announcement complements a technical assistance grant the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded to AFC in September 2024 for an environmental and social impact assessment to facilitate this effort and to move the project towards financial close.

• In October 2024, KoBold Metals, a U.S. company applying artificial intelligence to develop a critical minerals site in Zambia, signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with AFC committing to anchor the commercial viability of the Zambia-Lobito rail project with more than 300,000 tons of copper per year from its Mingoma mine.  AFC will collaborate with KoBold to support the Mingomba project, through a combination of project development funding, equity, or debt financing as required.

• AFC signed MOUs this month totaling an additional 170,000 tons of minimum freight commitments from Zambian mining projects including from Kobaloni Energy, which is planning to construct the first cobalt sulphate refinery on the African continent, and First Quantum Minerals, one of the world’s top ten copper producers.  These commitments will help the new Zambia-Lobito rail project raise capital at a lower cost.  The MOUs also represent start of creating a diversified supply chain route for the critical minerals that support the global energy transition.

• Since 1995, the United States has provided over $164 million for humanitarian demining in Angola.  This lifesaving assistance plays a critical role in bolstering human security, providing safe access to land for economic development, and facilitating environmental conservation in the Okavango River Basin. The U.S. Department of State announced a total of $9 million in de-mining assistance over the next two years that will facilitate rail construction along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, as well as other economic development goals across Angola, as part of a multi-year campaign for Angola to achieve mine-free status.  With a $10 million match from the Government of Angola, implementing partners will be able to clear the mines left from Angola’s decades-long civil war, enabling the land to be recultivated for farming and other uses.

• In December 2023, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board of Directors selected Tanzania to develop a threshold program.  MCC and the Government of Tanzania are now developing a trade and investment program to facilitate trade between Tanzania and its neighbors and address trade barriers.  The program is scheduled to launch in late 2025 and builds on MCC’s more than $700 million in prior investments in governance, transportation, energy, and water in Tanzania.

 
Agriculture

In support of U.S. efforts to accelerate agricultural-led economic growth in Angola and our partners across the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, the United States is investing in value-added food processing and connecting farmers to global markets.  These investments also deliver on President Biden’s commitment under the U.S.-Africa Partnership to Promote Food Security and Resilient Food Systems, to step up our investments to build more resilient food systems in Africa and to unlock Africa’s enormous agriculture production potential.
 

• Today, President Biden will meet with businesses that are investing in the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor enabled by U.S. support.  He will visit the Lobito production facilities of the Carrinho Group, Angola’s largest food producer, which is rapidly expanding the network of family farmers from whom it sources raw produce for products sold across the country.  President Biden will celebrate the first shipment of Carrinho food products along the Lobito Atlantic Railway line to be sold in the DRC, supporting regional food security.  To enhance agriculture expansion, USAID has partnered with Carrinho through an existing $5.5 million program and public-private partnership focused on women’s empowerment, to facilitate the offtake of grain and crops grown by communities along the Corridor.  In November 2024, DFC signed a non-binding Letter of Interest to explore a loan that would support Carrinho to purchase and install grain storage equipment to reach more farmers along the rail Corridor and key hubs.  Complementing these investments is the previously announced Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) financing to build 186 rural bridges.  This financing will further support thousands of smallholder farmers to participate in this sustainable agriculture value-chain as Carrinho grows its farmer network to two million farmers by 2030.

• The African Development Bank is announcing its intention to finance $370 million across three agriculture projects facilitating regional trade and food security and promoting sustainable commercial agriculture value chains.  These projects are expected to mobilize an additional $100 million in private sector capital and will enhance food security, promote the economic inclusion of local communities, including small- and medium-sized enterprises, and create jobs in agriculture and other sectors along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.  To accelerate implementation, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will make a $3 million commitment to the Bank to support project preparation and feasibility work.  This complements the Bank’s November 2023 $500 million commitment to invest in the Zambia-Lobito rail project, and adds to the $289 million agricultural value chain and transport infrastructure project in the DRC it financed in July 2024.  This brings the Bank’s total investment in the Corridor to more than $1 billion over the past 12 months.

• In October 2024, a U.S. consortium led by Amer-Con Corporation signed an MOU with ARCCLA, the Angolan public entity within the Ministry of Transportation responsible for the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, to build and operate silo terminals and collection points on planned logistics platforms along the Corridor and nationwide.  The project will focus on staple crops such as corn, rice, soybean, and wheat.  This project will boost local production, enhance food security and stimulate economic growth as part of the National Network of Grain Silos strategy, which aims to achieve a 2.2-million-ton storage capacity and reduce post-harvest losses.

• In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) committed nearly $300 million that will use U.S. commodities to help strengthen food security across Africa.  These programs provide critical school meals and literacy programming and are facilitating agricultural economic development in nine African countries, including Angola, and Tanzania.  In Angola, USDA will work with World Vision through a $27.5 million McGovern-Dole agreement to provide school meals for more than 80,000 beneficiaries in three provinces.  The project will provide more than 5,000 metric tons in nutritious U.S. commodities and more than 4,000 metric tons of locally procured fruits and vegetables to support the school meals and literacy programming in eight municipalities across the Benguela, Cunene, and Huila provinces.  In Tanzania, USDA will work with Lutheran World Relief through a more than $35 million Food for Progress agreement to support food security for 30,000 beneficiaries through the implementation of climate smart agricultural practices in the poultry sector for smallholder farmers.

• In October 2024, the MCC signed a $458 million compact program with Zambia focused on catalyzing inclusive economic growth in the agriculture and agro-processing sectors.  The program, which includes an additional $33 million contribution from the Government of Zambia, aims to lower the cost of transporting farm products and processed goods to markets, increase the availability of equipment for small and medium farmers and processors, increase financing for infrastructure projects that support agriculture, and catalyze reforms in the agriculture sector to attract greater private investment.  The compact will build on MCC’s $378 million in prior investments in Zambia to remove barriers to trade and improve water infrastructure, distribution, and reforms.

• In September 2024, DFC committed a $5 million loan to Community Markets for Conservation Limited in Zambia to expand its food processing business to support the adoption of sustainable, conservation-based practices in rural Zambia.  This builds on DFC’s $10 million loan to Seba Foods Zambia Ltd., which was announced at the PGI Lusaka Investment Forum in February 2024.  DFC also reached a commitment on a $6 million USAID-sponsored loan portfolio guarantee for Angolan company Kixicrédito S.A. that will support lending to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises targeting the agriculture sector, including firms along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.

 
Clean Energy 
 
Africa has approximately 39 percent of the world’s renewable energy potential.  The United States is committed to supporting the growing energy needs of people and businesses across the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor with renewable sources that power communities and industry.
 

• The United States supports Angola’s objective to generate 73 percent of its energy from clean sources by 2027 as well as current and anticipated energy needs across the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor as new companies and sectors develop.  Through PGI, the Department of State is providing technical assistance to strengthen the Angolan government’s capacity to meet national energy goals, reduce greenhouse gases, and expand access to electricity.

• In Angola, U.S. company Sun Africa, is part of a historic EXIM financing commitment of over $2.4 billion connecting a million Angolans to clean electricity.  This second phase of the project includes an additional 320 megawatts from distributed minigrid systems across four southern provinces alongside clean drinking water projects.  Sun Africa is receiving support from Power Africa, and has received support from a number of Power Africa interagency partners, including USAID, the Department of Commerce, the State Department, and EXIM.

• Through USAID’s Empower Southern Africa program under Power Africa, the United States plans to enter a formal partnership with the Angolan National Transmission Company to realize important cross-border and domestic transmission lines that will help integrate Angola into the Southern and Central Africa Power Pools and supply electricity to the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor. USAID is launching a new $1.5 million grant from the Power Africa Opportunity Fund to provide solar powered irrigation and refrigeration equipment to support farming communities along the Corridor.

• In September 2024, DFC committed a $40 million liquidity facility to Africa GreenCo, a company operating in Zambia that is expanding renewable energy access.  Africa GreenCo procures renewable electricity through power purchase agreements from independent power producers to sell on the Southern African Power Pool, to both public utilities and private sector buyers.  DFC’s support will help provide a credit enhancement to Africa GreenCo, enabling it to establish a track record as an energy aggregator and trader.

• To accelerate private investment in African infrastructure projects, and in the Lobito Corridor in particular, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will make a $4.2 million contribution to the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA) via the African Development Bank, one of the partners collaborating on the development of the Lobito Corridor.  AGIA aims to mobilize private capital at a rate of 20 times donor contributions, meaning that our contribution should catalyze approximately $100 million to build quality, sustainable infrastructure projects.

 
Critical Minerals Supply Chains 
 
Africa will play a central role in the global energy transition and the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor is rich in the critical minerals that will power the 21stcentury.  The United States is committed to ensuring reliable supply chains by supporting the development of this sector with environmentally respectful processing so more of the value is captured on the continent.
 

• Through the Kabanga Nickel project, LifeZone Metals Ltd., a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is investing in bringing critical mineral value addition to Tanzania.  Their support of the development of the Kahama special economic zone, which will include a first of its kind nickel processing facility in the region, can serve as a hub and training center for Tanzanians working across the clean the energy supply chain.  In August 2024, DFC signed a retainer letter with Kabanga Nickel Limited, a subsidiary of Lifezone Metals Ltd., to begin due diligence on political risk insurance to support the Kabanga Nickel underground nickel-copper-cobalt mine site and the Kahama Hydromet refinery site.  In September 2024, DFC also signed a non-binding letter of interest with Kabanga Nickel Limited expressing DFC’s interest in considering a potential direct loan to support the project.

• The United States and Angola are collaborating on principled investments to advance critical minerals projects along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor through technical assistance to prepare new operations to secure future debt or equity financing.  During the June 2024 U.S.-Angola Energy Security Dialogue, the Department of State and Angola agreed to elevate our critical mineral partnership.  In September 2024, Pensana PLC received a $3.4 million grant from DFC to fund a feasibility study to double the capacity of its Longonio rare earths mine, design in-country refining capacity, and conduct test work on new ore bodies.  It also includes a $3.2 million DFC technical assistance grant to Chillerton to support the development of a green copper mining project in Zambia.

• USAID, the State Department, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is announcing $2 million in technical assistance for responsible development and management of Angola’s mining sector.  In November 2023, USGS and the Angolan Geological Institute (IGEO) signed an MOU to enhance scientific collaboration.  This partnership will foster transparency and attract principled investment in Angola’s mineral sector through a three-year program to analyze and interpret newly acquired geoscience data to document Angola’s critical mineral potential while building capacity within the IGEO.

 
Health 
 
The United States is committed to expanding access to health care and strengthening health security, including through PGI investments in health-related infrastructure in the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.
 

• The United States and Angola are working together to help accelerate development progress in Angola, including by mobilizing critical investments in Angola’s health infrastructure under PGI.  To support the Angolan government’s priorities in a fiscally responsible manner, DFC has committed to providing up to $150 million in political risk insurance for new water treatment plants to expand access to potable water to underserved communities in southern Angola.  This will further expand DFC’s portfolio of investments in Angola – more than $700 million in commitments – all of which have been committed during the Biden-Harris Administration.

 
Digital Access
 
Access to high-speed internet and associated digital resources helps fuel technological and economic innovation in Africa.  The United States is committed to connecting citizens and businesses across the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor with highly reliable and trusted vendor technology.
 

• In alignment with the Digital Transformation with Africa initiative, the United States is investing in Angola’s digital architecture, supporting reliable telecommunication networks—using trusted vendors—that will benefit the Angolan people and improve Angola’s digital connectivity to the global economy.  EXIM announced a non-binding, preliminary board commitment to provide $100 million financing for U.S.-owned telecommunications company Africell to expand its high quality, reliable, and affordable wireless cell service to all corners of Angola and upgrade equipment in the DRC with trusted vendor technology.  This builds on USAID’s 2023 launch of a nearly $5 million “Dinheiro Digital é Melhor” or “Mobile Money is Better” project with Africell to spur the development of a vibrant and secure mobile money and digital finance ecosystem in Angola.  USAID and partners are connecting approximately 12,000 new mobile phone users to the Afrimoney platform per month, with 240,000 new users joining in 2024.  In combination with financial literacy training and policy engagement with Angola’s government, USAID and partners are breaking down barriers and reaching those previously excluded from the formal financial system.

• To date, USTDA has provided $13.2 million in funding to prepare digital, transportation, and clean energy projects that will help develop the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.  These activities are designed to help unlock several billion dollars in financing and deploy innovative U.S. technologies for the Trans-Africa Corridor’s implementation.

• In November 2024, USTDA awarded a feasibility study grant to Javilian Civils (Proprietary) Limited to support the deployment of terrestrial fiber and access infrastructure connecting inland locations in Central and Southern Africa with subsea cables along the Atlantic Coast.  The project will ultimately increase internet connectivity in Angola, the DRC, and Namibia.

• In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce led a large whole-of-government delegation to the NewSpace Africa Conference held in Angola, representing a growing US interest in space-related cooperation and trade, and in engaging African nations in development of norms for satellite operations.  Part of the Commerce Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offers a wide range of free, open source data, information, and tools that are available to help businesses, communities, and nations address climate adaptation and mitigation, sea-level rise, flooding, coral reef monitoring, and space weather, including a range of early-warning systems for weather, climate, and hydrological disasters.

 
Investment 
 
PGI leverages public funds to unlock private capital investment.  In the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, the United States is supporting sustainable economic growth by helping secure investment for firms across many sectors and sizes.

• In September 2024, DFC committed a $13 million equity investment in the African Rivers Fund IV, which will support small and medium-sized businesses in frontier markets in Central and Southern Africa, including Angola, the DRC, and Zambia.

• To promote U.S. investment in Angola, the DRC, and Zambia, Prosper Africa is providing roughly $600,000 of transaction advisory services to firms along the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor.  These services aim to connect local firms, accelerate economic progress, and increase local and regional involvement in the growing economy around the Corridor.

• Through the United States’ Economic Resilience Initiative, USAID will help advance the economic opportunities presented by the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor for inclusive growth.  Working with Congress, $4.5 million will support workforce development that matches private sector needs and the industrialization of agricultural inputs and outputs for regional export markets along the Corridor.

 
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Presidential Palace
Luanda, Angola

1:00 P.M. WAT

PRESIDENT LOURENÇO:  (As interpreted.)  (In progress) diplomatic relations since 19th of May, 1993, which have been growing year after year, mainly since in Angola we started the process of fight against corruption and impunity, and we establishing the best business environment.

The Angola president José Eduardo dos Santos was received in the White House in September 1991 and December 1995 by then-Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton respectively.

I thank the fact that President Joe Biden has received me in a very friendly and warm manner in White House on the 30th November, 2023. 

The two countries have been exchanging ministerial and business delegation visits where we have to highlight the visits by the minister of national defense of Angola and the chief of staff of the Angolan Armed Forces to Washington, D.C., and the visits by various U.S. secretary of state to Rwanda and, more recently, for the first time, the U.S. Defense secretary and the director general of CIA to Luanda.

On holding these state visits to Angola on the eves of Angola celebrating 50 years of its national independence, this will be marked in the history of the two countries as the first visit by a U.S. president touching the Angolan soil.

This does not only put an end to the past of our relations whereby within the Cold War we had never been aligned, but also it marks an important turning point in our relations, which undoubtedly will know a new dynamics as from today.

We want to work together attracting U.S. direct full investment to Angola, opening business and (inaudible) opportunity for Angolan businessmen to the U.S. market.

We also would like to increase our cooperation in defense and security sectors, in access to military schools and academies, the military training in Angola, and hold more joint military exercises to cooperate more in programs of maritime security in order to protect the Gulf of Guinea and South Atlantic, as well as in the program of equipment and modernization of the Angola Armed Forces.

Important projects of public investment are ongoing with U.S. EXIM bank funding, City Capital, and the International Development Financial Cooperation — DFC — with U.S. companies such as Sun Afrique, Africell, Mayfair Energy, (inaudible), GatesAir, amongst others, without talking about the oil companies, Chevron and Esso, who are based in Angola for various decades, as well as numerous U.S. service companies in the oil sector.

With company (inaudible), we are working in building cereal silos and the logistic platforms and parks along the Lobito Corridor and other points that considered as main grain production places in the framework of food security.

In the health sector, with USAID, Gavi, and Global Fund, we’ve been benefitting a lot in the programs of fight against malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS, COVID-19, as well as in the program of robotic surgery that is starting to become a reality in Angola, in partnership with the well-known hospital from Orlando, Florida, in the U.S.

We would like to see U.S. investors engaged in construction of power transmission lines, in high-voltage under public-private partnerships for southern African countries, namely for the region of Copperbelt in Zambia and DRC, as well as for Namibia, connecting to the southern countries’ power grid.

Our AngoSat 2 project is working with NASA and Maxar in acquisition of high-resolution satellite images for monitoring natural disasters, namely in the implementation of our national program of fight against the effects of droughts in the southern part of Angola, PCESSA.

The country is in the process of purchasing six aircraft, Boeing 787 Dreamliners, whose delivery will take place early next year, 2025.

We’re also working with U.S. company Wicks Groups Consulting for Angola accession to Category 1 of Aviation Federal Administration, which could be facilitated by the full functioning of the international airport Antonio Agostinho Neto.

We highlight the fact that in June 2025, Luanda will host the U.S.-Africa Business Summit that will bring closer politicians, entrepreneurs, scholars, and civil society from the U.S. and Africa to talk about businesses, history, culture, and various cross-interests.

Mr. President, your vision and engagement for the success of the Lobito Corridor, as well as your great contribution to our energy transition program in the construction of solar products in the southern part of Angola will always be remembered as a great contribution to food and energy security, as well as towards economic and social development of Angola and the whole southern African region.

Once again, thank you very much, you’re (inaudible) welcome to Angola, and the Angolan people feel themselves very happy and proud of having you here in the city of Luanda. 

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Mr. President, thank you very much.  It’s good to see you again and thank you for having me here today.  I mean that sincerely.

I joked with you earlier when I said, “We Bidens are like poor relatives.  We show up when we’re invited, stay longer than we should, eat all your food, and don’t know when to go home.”  But you’ve been very, very generous and hospitable.  Thank you.

I’m proud — (clears throat) — excuse me — very proud to be the first American president to visit Angola.  And I’m deeply proud of everything we have done together to transform our partnership thus far.  And there’s so much ahead of us, so much we can do.

The results so far speak for themselves: building an ocean access railway — ocean-to-ocean access railway that’s going to connect the continent from west to east for the first time in history.

Investing in solar energy projects.  It’s going to help Angolans generate 75 percent of its clean energy by next year — by next year.

Upgrading Internet and communications infrastructure to connect all of Angola to high-speed Internet networks.  As we’re doing that at home ourselves, I compare it to when Franklin Roosevelt took electricity to rural America.  It didn’t exist in rural America.  The government provided it.

Well, it’s hard to get by these days in business or in ranching or anything else without access to the Internet — knowing what’s going on, when to sell your product and the like. It’s critical.

And — (clears throat) — excuse me — and increasing our agriculture production so Angolans can feed themselves and, quite frankly, the rest of the world and making a profit doing it — providing work, providing opportunities, providing muscle to your economy.

And increased agriculture production so Angolans, as I said, can not only feed themselves but — it’s hard for people in a country that only has the borders of the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean to understand that it’s hard to get a product from one country to another that are badly in need of agricultural products but you can’t get there.  To get there, you not only help those people but you help yourself and you grow your economy.

And you’ve heard me say it before, Mr. President.  The United States is all in on Africa.  All in on Africa.  And I think a testament to that assertion I’ve made to you when I saw you and I’ve made publicly before — you’ve heard me say it before, but the United States is all in — all in on Angola.  We’ve already, in — my administration alone has invested over $3 billion in Angola thus far.  The future of the world is here in Africa and Angola.

So, during this visit, I look forward to discussing how we keep ensuring democracy delivers for people — because if they don’t think it’s a democracy and they don’t think they’re in on a deal, they don’t think they’re part of it.  And you’ve been working very hard to establish good democracy.

And — and secondly, how can we help build the strong ties between our nations and our businesses and our people?  There’s a lot to say on all of this, I know.  We’re prepared to — I think we’re well on our way to answering a lot of the questions, but I think you should understand the extent to which we’re prepared to be engaged.

And as I said to — to the president, ours is not — we don’t think because we’re bigger and we’re more powerful that we’re smarter.  We don’t think we have all the answers.  But we’re prepared to hear your answers to the needs you have, particularly answers to international debt financing and a whole range of other things we’re prepared to discuss.

So, I want to thank you very much for your personal welcome.  I want to thank all of your colleagues for treating us so well since we’ve been here.  And I mean it from the bottom of my heart. 

The future of the world is in Africa.  That’s not hyperbole.  It’s going to be a billion people very shortly in this continent — a very diverse continent.  And by — in another 20 years, you’re going to be the largest country in the world — continent in the world.  And so, you’re — we need you to succeed.  This isn’t all selfless.  The more you succeed, the more we succeed, the more the world succeeds.

So, thank you for being willing to have me, be willing to talk to me, and I look forward to a long relationship.

Thank you very much.

(Cross-talk.)

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Welcome to America.

1:13 P.M. WAT

The post Remarks by President Biden and President João Lourenço of Angola Before Bilateral Meeting | Luanda, Angola appeared first on The White House.

Presidential Palace
Luanda, Angola

1:00 P.M. WAT

PRESIDENT LOURENÇO:  (As interpreted.)  (In progress) diplomatic relations since 19th of May, 1993, which have been growing year after year, mainly since in Angola we started the process of fight against corruption and impunity, and we establishing the best business environment.

The Angola president José Eduardo dos Santos was received in the White House in September 1991 and December 1995 by then-Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton respectively.

I thank the fact that President Joe Biden has received me in a very friendly and warm manner in White House on the 30th November, 2023. 

The two countries have been exchanging ministerial and business delegation visits where we have to highlight the visits by the minister of national defense of Angola and the chief of staff of the Angolan Armed Forces to Washington, D.C., and the visits by various U.S. secretary of state to Rwanda and, more recently, for the first time, the U.S. Defense secretary and the director general of CIA to Luanda.

On holding these state visits to Angola on the eves of Angola celebrating 50 years of its national independence, this will be marked in the history of the two countries as the first visit by a U.S. president touching the Angolan soil.

This does not only put an end to the past of our relations whereby within the Cold War we had never been aligned, but also it marks an important turning point in our relations, which undoubtedly will know a new dynamics as from today.

We want to work together attracting U.S. direct full investment to Angola, opening business and (inaudible) opportunity for Angolan businessmen to the U.S. market.

We also would like to increase our cooperation in defense and security sectors, in access to military schools and academies, the military training in Angola, and hold more joint military exercises to cooperate more in programs of maritime security in order to protect the Gulf of Guinea and South Atlantic, as well as in the program of equipment and modernization of the Angola Armed Forces.

Important projects of public investment are ongoing with U.S. EXIM bank funding, City Capital, and the International Development Financial Cooperation — DFC — with U.S. companies such as Sun Afrique, Africell, Mayfair Energy, (inaudible), GatesAir, amongst others, without talking about the oil companies, Chevron and Esso, who are based in Angola for various decades, as well as numerous U.S. service companies in the oil sector.

With company (inaudible), we are working in building cereal silos and the logistic platforms and parks along the Lobito Corridor and other points that considered as main grain production places in the framework of food security.

In the health sector, with USAID, Gavi, and Global Fund, we’ve been benefitting a lot in the programs of fight against malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS, COVID-19, as well as in the program of robotic surgery that is starting to become a reality in Angola, in partnership with the well-known hospital from Orlando, Florida, in the U.S.

We would like to see U.S. investors engaged in construction of power transmission lines, in high-voltage under public-private partnerships for southern African countries, namely for the region of Copperbelt in Zambia and DRC, as well as for Namibia, connecting to the southern countries’ power grid.

Our AngoSat 2 project is working with NASA and Maxar in acquisition of high-resolution satellite images for monitoring natural disasters, namely in the implementation of our national program of fight against the effects of droughts in the southern part of Angola, PCESSA.

The country is in the process of purchasing six aircraft, Boeing 787 Dreamliners, whose delivery will take place early next year, 2025.

We’re also working with U.S. company Wicks Groups Consulting for Angola accession to Category 1 of Aviation Federal Administration, which could be facilitated by the full functioning of the international airport Antonio Agostinho Neto.

We highlight the fact that in June 2025, Luanda will host the U.S.-Africa Business Summit that will bring closer politicians, entrepreneurs, scholars, and civil society from the U.S. and Africa to talk about businesses, history, culture, and various cross-interests.

Mr. President, your vision and engagement for the success of the Lobito Corridor, as well as your great contribution to our energy transition program in the construction of solar products in the southern part of Angola will always be remembered as a great contribution to food and energy security, as well as towards economic and social development of Angola and the whole southern African region.

Once again, thank you very much, you’re (inaudible) welcome to Angola, and the Angolan people feel themselves very happy and proud of having you here in the city of Luanda. 

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Mr. President, thank you very much.  It’s good to see you again and thank you for having me here today.  I mean that sincerely.

I joked with you earlier when I said, “We Bidens are like poor relatives.  We show up when we’re invited, stay longer than we should, eat all your food, and don’t know when to go home.”  But you’ve been very, very generous and hospitable.  Thank you.

I’m proud — (clears throat) — excuse me — very proud to be the first American president to visit Angola.  And I’m deeply proud of everything we have done together to transform our partnership thus far.  And there’s so much ahead of us, so much we can do.

The results so far speak for themselves: building an ocean access railway — ocean-to-ocean access railway that’s going to connect the continent from west to east for the first time in history.

Investing in solar energy projects.  It’s going to help Angolans generate 75 percent of its clean energy by next year — by next year.

Upgrading Internet and communications infrastructure to connect all of Angola to high-speed Internet networks.  As we’re doing that at home ourselves, I compare it to when Franklin Roosevelt took electricity to rural America.  It didn’t exist in rural America.  The government provided it.

Well, it’s hard to get by these days in business or in ranching or anything else without access to the Internet — knowing what’s going on, when to sell your product and the like. It’s critical.

And — (clears throat) — excuse me — and increasing our agriculture production so Angolans can feed themselves and, quite frankly, the rest of the world and making a profit doing it — providing work, providing opportunities, providing muscle to your economy.

And increased agriculture production so Angolans, as I said, can not only feed themselves but — it’s hard for people in a country that only has the borders of the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean to understand that it’s hard to get a product from one country to another that are badly in need of agricultural products but you can’t get there.  To get there, you not only help those people but you help yourself and you grow your economy.

And you’ve heard me say it before, Mr. President.  The United States is all in on Africa.  All in on Africa.  And I think a testament to that assertion I’ve made to you when I saw you and I’ve made publicly before — you’ve heard me say it before, but the United States is all in — all in on Angola.  We’ve already, in — my administration alone has invested over $3 billion in Angola thus far.  The future of the world is here in Africa and Angola.

So, during this visit, I look forward to discussing how we keep ensuring democracy delivers for people — because if they don’t think it’s a democracy and they don’t think they’re in on a deal, they don’t think they’re part of it.  And you’ve been working very hard to establish good democracy.

And — and secondly, how can we help build the strong ties between our nations and our businesses and our people?  There’s a lot to say on all of this, I know.  We’re prepared to — I think we’re well on our way to answering a lot of the questions, but I think you should understand the extent to which we’re prepared to be engaged.

And as I said to — to the president, ours is not — we don’t think because we’re bigger and we’re more powerful that we’re smarter.  We don’t think we have all the answers.  But we’re prepared to hear your answers to the needs you have, particularly answers to international debt financing and a whole range of other things we’re prepared to discuss.

So, I want to thank you very much for your personal welcome.  I want to thank all of your colleagues for treating us so well since we’ve been here.  And I mean it from the bottom of my heart. 

The future of the world is in Africa.  That’s not hyperbole.  It’s going to be a billion people very shortly in this continent — a very diverse continent.  And by — in another 20 years, you’re going to be the largest country in the world — continent in the world.  And so, you’re — we need you to succeed.  This isn’t all selfless.  The more you succeed, the more we succeed, the more the world succeeds.

So, thank you for being willing to have me, be willing to talk to me, and I look forward to a long relationship.

Thank you very much.

(Cross-talk.)

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Welcome to America.

1:13 P.M. WAT

The post Remarks by President Biden and President João Lourenço of Angola Before Bilateral Meeting | Luanda, Angola appeared first on The White House.

National Museum of Slavery
Belas, Angola

5:54 P.M. WAT

THE PRESIDENT:  You are a brave crowd to come out in the rain.  I brought my hat just in case.  I don’t have much hair to help me.  (Laughter.)

Leaders of Angola, government and civil society, students, young leaders, staff of the National Slavery Museum, distinguished guests, I sincerely mean this when I say thank you for being here in the rain with us today.  Thank you for allowing me to be here.  It’s an honor — a genuine honor to be with you today in Angola. 

I just got off the phone with the vice president, telling her I’m sorry she’s not with me to be here today, you know, with you in Angola, the — a vibrant city.  And — and I — look, not the city.  The city, I know, is not Angola, but in Angola in a vibrant city.

And I’m joined by members of the United States Congress, senior officials of my administration, and American business and civic leaders.  We think that it’s important that we get together.  We thank all people of Angola for your warm hospitality, and I mean that s- — please sit down if you have a seat.  Don’t — I’m sorry.  (Laughter.)  I wasn’t sure you all had seats. 

We are gathered at a someln — a solemn location.  Because to fully consider how far our two countries have come in our friendship, we have to remember how we began. 

We hear them in the wind and the waves.  Young women, young men born free in the highlands of Angola, only to be captured, bound, and forced on a “death march” along this very coast to this spot by slave traders in the year 1619. 

In the building next to us, they were baptized into a foreign faith against their will, their names changed against their will to Anthony and Isabella.  Then they were condemned to a slave ship bound for the Middle Passage, packed together in hundreds by hundreds.  A third of those souls did not survive the journey.  One third died on the way.

But Anthony and Isabella made it to the British colony in Virginia, where they were sold into servitude and became two of the first enslaved Americans in a place that, 150 years later, would become the United States of America.  They had a son, considered the first child of African descent born in America: William Tucker.

It was the beginning of slavery in the United States.  Cruel.  Brutal.  Dehumanizing.  Our nation’s original sin — original sin — one that haunted America and casts a long shadow ever since. 

From the bloody Civil War that nearly tore my nation apart to the long battle with Jim Crow in the ni- — to — into the 1960s for the civil rights and voting rights movement — which got me involved in public life — during which American cities were burned, to the still unfinished reckoning with racial injustice in my country today. 

Historians believe people of Angola accounted for a significant number of all enslaved people shipped to America.  Today, millions of African Americans have roots in Angola. 

As I said at the U.S.-African Leaders Summit that held in Washington two years — I held in Washington two years ago, “Our people lie at the heart of the deep and profound connection that forever binds Africa and the United States together.  We remember the stolen men and women and children who were brought to our shores in chains, subjected to unimaginable cruelty.” 

Here with us today are three Americans who are direct descendants of Anthony and Isabella, those first enslaved Americans — Afri- — Africans in America.  Wanda Tucker of Hamilton [Hampton], Virginia. Wanda, are you there?  There you are, Wanda.  God love you.  (Applause.)  Her brother Vincent and Carolita as well.  Thank you for being here.  We’re going to write history, not erase history.

The Tuckers learned their family history around the dinner table.  That history led Wanda here in Angola a few years ago.  She did not know how to speak the language, but that didn’t matter.  When she arrived, Wanda said she felt something profound, like she’d come home.  That was her comment to me.  She called it the “connection without words.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to honor that connection between our people and to pay tribute to the generations of Angolans and American families, like the Tuckers, who have served in government for over — I’ve served in government for over 50 years.  I know I only look like I’m 40 years old, but I’ve been around hanging in the government for — (laughter) — I hate to admit it — for 50 years.

But in that 50 years, I’ve learned a lot.  Perhaps most importantly, I have learned that while history can be hidden, it cannot and should not be erased.  It should be faced.  It’s our duty to face our history: the good, the bad, and the ugly — the whole truth.  That’s what great nations do. 

That’s why I chose to speak here at the National Slavery Museum today, just as I toured.  And that’s why your president visited the National Museum of African American Culture in the — in Washington, D.C. — the second most-visited museum in the States — and he did it a few years ago.

He saw what I see: the stark contradiction between my country’s founding principles of liberty, justice, and equality and the way we long treated people from Angola and from throughout Africa.

I’ve often said America is the only nation in the world founded on an idea.  Most countries are founded based on race, ethnicity, religion, geography, or some other attribute.  But in the United States, founded on idea, one embedded in our Declaration of Independence, and that is that all men and women are created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout their lives. 

It’s abundantly clear today we have not lived up to that idea, but we’ve never fully walked away from it either.  And that’s due in no small part to the determination and dreams of African Americans, including Angolan Americans. 

The proud descendants of the diaspora who helped build my nation as they rebuilt their own families and their own sense of self.  They were the forebearers as well — resilient, faithful, even hopeful — hopeful that joy would cometh in the morning, as it says in the Bible; hopeful that our past would not be the story of our future; and hopeful, in time, the United States would write a different story in partnership with the people brought here in chains to my nation from Africa.  It’s a story of mutual respect and mutual progress. 

That’s the history that brings me here, the first American president ever to visit Angola.  Over time — (applause) — and I’m proud to be.  Over time, the relationship beca- — between our countries has been transformed from distance to genuine warmth.  Today, our relationship is the strongest it’s ever been. 

Throughout my presidency, it’s been my goal — goal of the United States to build a strong partnership with peoples and nations across the continent of Africa — true partnerships aimed at achieving shared goals, bringing to bear the dynamism of America’s private sector and the expertise of our government to support aspirations of African entrepreneurs, experts, leaders both inside and outside of government.

Because we know the challenge that define our age demand African leadership.  One out of every four human beings on Earth will live in Africa by the year 2050.  And the ingenuity and determination of young Africans in particular, like the young society leaders I just met with here today, will be undeniable forces in that human progress. 

That’s why I’m so optimistic, because of that generation.  In no small part, it will be in their hands and the hands of people across Africa to expand access to clean energy, to tackle threats of global health, to grow global — a global middle class. 

In many ways, Africa’s — Africa’s success is and will be the world’s success.  As I said at the United States — U.S.-Africa Summit: The United States is all in on Africa’s future. 

Two years ago, I pledged to deliver $55 million [billion] in new investments in Africa and to mobilize American businesses to close new deals with African partners. Two years ago, we are out way ahead of schedule.  More than 20 heads of U.S. government agencies and members of my Cabinet have traveled to Africa, delivering over $40 billion in investments thus far. 

And we have announced nearly 1,200 new business deals between African and American companies — and American companies — total will be worth $52 billion, including investments in solar energy, telecom, mobile finance, infrastructure, and partnerships with American airlines to expand opportunities for tourism so you don’t have to fly to Paris to get here — although Paris is pretty nice.  (Laughter.)

Here in Angola alone, the United States has invested $3 billion during my short presidency.  We see the bonds between our countries across sectors, from clean energy to health care to sports.  The American Basketball Associat- — National Basketball Association launched Basketball Africa League and Angola is the reigning champion.  (Applause.)

And we see the impact of American culture across — African culture across the American culture, from music to entertainment to fashion to arts and so much more. 

Student exchanges between our countries are essential and must increase.  Students in both countries can be — better understand one another if they know the country, if they visit the country, if they’re educated in the other country.  An increased connection between us makes a big difference.

Being all in on Africa means making sure African voices are heard at the tables that matter most.  Under my leadership, the United States brought — we brought in the African Union as a permanent member of the G20 economies, and we insisted on more African representation among the leaders of the International Monetary Fund and other world financial institutions. 

We’ve also pushed to ensure that developing nations do not — do not choose — have to choose between paying down unsustainable debt and being able to invest in their own people.  And we’re using our voi- — our own voice to increase Africa’s presence on the U.N. Security Council at the United Nations.  That should happen.  You can clap for that, folks.  You should be in there.  (Applause.)  

The United States continues to be the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid and development assistance.  And that’s going to increase.  You know, that’s the right thing for the wealthiest nation in the world to do. 

And today, I’m announcing over $1 billion in new humanitarian support for Africans displaced from homes by historic droughts and food insecurity.  (Applause.)

But we know African leaders and citizens are seeking more than just aid.  You seek investment.  And so, the United States is expanding our relationship all across Africa — from assistance to aid to investment to trade — moving from patrons to partners to help bridge the infrastructure gap. 

I was told, by the way, when I got elected I could never get an infrastructure bill passed because the last guy spent eight years saying, “Next month” — four years saying, “Next month.”

Well, guess what, folks?  We’ve done it.  (Applause.)  A trillion — a trillion three hundred billion dollars for infrastructure to narrow the digital divide, drive inclusive, sustainable economic growth.

We’re looking for partners who understand that the right question in the year 2024 is not “What can the United States do for the people of Africa?”  It’s “What can we do together for the people of Africa?”  (Applause.)  That’s what we’re going to do.

Nowhere in Africa is the answer more exciting than here in Angola.  It starts with our governments, whose partnership is stronger, deeper, and more effective and active than any point in history.  It’s testament to your president, who had the vision to carry out this relationship — carry this relationship forward.  And it’s a testament to Angolan citizens across the private sector and civil society who have forged strong bonds with your American counterparts. 

And together, we’re engaged in a major joint project to close the infrastructure gap for the benefit of Angolans, Africans across the continent, Americans, and the world.  We’ll all benefit, as you benefit.  You’re — you can produce much more agriculture, for example, than states that can’t.  You’re going to increase their longevity, and you’re going to increase your impact and profit. 

It’s called the Lobito Corridor.  We’re building railroad lines from Angola to the Port of Lobito, in Zambia and the DRC, and, ultimately, all the way to the Atlantic — from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.  It’ll be the first trans-continental railroad in Africa and the biggest American rail investment outside of America.

And I must tell you up front, with American press here, I’m probably the most pro-rail guy in America.  (Laughter.)  I’ve ri- — I’ve ridden over 1,300,000 miles on a daily basis to my work, 210 — -20 miles a day for the last 50 years. 

Well, I didn’t do it as president.  I stayed in the White House a lot. 

But all kidding aside, folks, we can do this.  We can do this.  It’s in our power. 

It will not only generate significant employment, it will also allow individual countries to maximize their own domestic resources for the benefit of their people and sell critical minerals that power the world’s energy transformation and our fight against climate change and to transport them in a fraction of the time and lower cost.  A shipment that used to take over 45 days will now take 45 hours.  That’s a game changer.  That increases profit.  That increases opportunity.

The Lobito Corridor represents the right way to invest in full partnership with a country and its people. 

As part of this project, we will install enough clean energy power to power hundreds of thousands of homes, expand high-speed Internet across — for millions of Angolans, which is a cos- — as consequential today as electricity was two generations ago. 

And we’re investing in agriculture and food security, fulfilling the needs of countries without agricultural capacity and expanding opportunities for countries growing the crops; connecting farmers across the Lobito — along the Lobito Corridor to new markets, expanding opportunity and prosperity — you doing that, having the means to do it. 

The United States understands how we invest in Africa is as important as how much we invest.  In too many places, 10 years after the so-called investment was made, workers are still coming home on a dirt road and without electricity, a village without a school, a city without a hospital, or a country under crushing debt. 

We seek a better way: transparent, high-standard, open-access investments that protect workers and the rule of law and the environment.  It can be done and will be done.  (Applause.)

And, folks, the partnership between Angola and the United States also extends to supporting peace and security in this region and beyond. 

Pl- — Pr- — President Lourenço, I want to thank him for his leadership and mediation in regional conflicts.  I also want to thank him for Angola speaking out against Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.  It matters.  It matters when leaders speak out.  (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, I am in the final weeks of my presidency.  You don’t have to clap for that.  (Laughter.)  You can if you want. 

But I wanted to come to Angola.  Although I’ve been chairman of the Africa America subcommittee for a long time, I had never made it to Angola.  Because although I don’t know exactly what the future will hold, I know the future runs through Angola, through Africa.  I mean it sincerely.  (Applause.)  I’m not kidding.

I know that any nation that wants to thrive in the next century must work as partners with workers, entrepreneurs, and businesses here in Africa.  I know that the connection between our communities, our universities, our sports, our civil societies, our families, our people will only grow deeper.  We have to stay focused.

The story of Angola and the United States holds a lesson for the world: two nations with a shared history in evil of human bondage; two nations on opposite sides of the Cold War, defining struggle in the late part of the 20th century; and now, two nations standing shoulder to shoulder, working together every day for the mutual benefit of our people. 

It’s a reminder that no nation need be permanently a — the adversary of another, a testament to the human capacity for reconciliation, and proof that from every — from the horrors of slavery and war, there is a way forward. 

So, I stand here today — I mean this sincerely — deeply optimistic.

When I — by the way, 20 years ago, when I was a senator, I had a cranial aneurysm.  They s- — got me to the hospital in time.  I remember asking the doctor, “What are my ch-” — he said, “Oh, your chances are good.  They’re about 30 percent.”  (Laughter.)  (Inaudible.)  When it was all over, he was deciding whether or not it was congenital or environmental.  And I said, “I don’t give a damn.  I’m here.”  He said, “You know what your problem is, Senator?  You’re a congenital optimist.”  (Laughter and applause.)  I am.

About the possibilities and progress that lie just beyond the horizon.  Together, we can and will chart a futuche worther [future worthy] of great nations, worthy of the highest aspirations of our people. We just have to remember who we are: We’re Angolans; we’re Americans.   

As I often say in Ameri- — to the American people: There’s nothing — nothing beyond our capacity if we work together.  And today, I say to the people of Angola and all the people of Africa, there is nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together. 

Thank you.  And God bless you and keep you all safe.  (Applause.)  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  And thank you for waiting. 

And I got my hat.  Thanks, everybody.  I really mean it.  You’re very patient.

Q    Mr. President, anything on South Korea and martial law?

THE PRESIDENT:  I’m just getting briefed on it.  I’m just getting briefed.  I haven’t heard the details.

6:13 P.M. WAT

The post Remarks by President Biden Honoring the Past and Future of the Angolan-U.S. Relationship | Belas, Angola appeared first on The White House.

National Museum of Slavery
Belas, Angola

5:54 P.M. WAT

THE PRESIDENT:  You are a brave crowd to come out in the rain.  I brought my hat just in case.  I don’t have much hair to help me.  (Laughter.)

Leaders of Angola, government and civil society, students, young leaders, staff of the National Slavery Museum, distinguished guests, I sincerely mean this when I say thank you for being here in the rain with us today.  Thank you for allowing me to be here.  It’s an honor — a genuine honor to be with you today in Angola. 

I just got off the phone with the vice president, telling her I’m sorry she’s not with me to be here today, you know, with you in Angola, the — a vibrant city.  And — and I — look, not the city.  The city, I know, is not Angola, but in Angola in a vibrant city.

And I’m joined by members of the United States Congress, senior officials of my administration, and American business and civic leaders.  We think that it’s important that we get together.  We thank all people of Angola for your warm hospitality, and I mean that s- — please sit down if you have a seat.  Don’t — I’m sorry.  (Laughter.)  I wasn’t sure you all had seats. 

We are gathered at a someln — a solemn location.  Because to fully consider how far our two countries have come in our friendship, we have to remember how we began. 

We hear them in the wind and the waves.  Young women, young men born free in the highlands of Angola, only to be captured, bound, and forced on a “death march” along this very coast to this spot by slave traders in the year 1619. 

In the building next to us, they were baptized into a foreign faith against their will, their names changed against their will to Anthony and Isabella.  Then they were condemned to a slave ship bound for the Middle Passage, packed together in hundreds by hundreds.  A third of those souls did not survive the journey.  One third died on the way.

But Anthony and Isabella made it to the British colony in Virginia, where they were sold into servitude and became two of the first enslaved Americans in a place that, 150 years later, would become the United States of America.  They had a son, considered the first child of African descent born in America: William Tucker.

It was the beginning of slavery in the United States.  Cruel.  Brutal.  Dehumanizing.  Our nation’s original sin — original sin — one that haunted America and casts a long shadow ever since. 

From the bloody Civil War that nearly tore my nation apart to the long battle with Jim Crow in the ni- — to — into the 1960s for the civil rights and voting rights movement — which got me involved in public life — during which American cities were burned, to the still unfinished reckoning with racial injustice in my country today. 

Historians believe people of Angola accounted for a significant number of all enslaved people shipped to America.  Today, millions of African Americans have roots in Angola. 

As I said at the U.S.-African Leaders Summit that held in Washington two years — I held in Washington two years ago, “Our people lie at the heart of the deep and profound connection that forever binds Africa and the United States together.  We remember the stolen men and women and children who were brought to our shores in chains, subjected to unimaginable cruelty.” 

Here with us today are three Americans who are direct descendants of Anthony and Isabella, those first enslaved Americans — Afri- — Africans in America.  Wanda Tucker of Hamilton [Hampton], Virginia. Wanda, are you there?  There you are, Wanda.  God love you.  (Applause.)  Her brother Vincent and Carolita as well.  Thank you for being here.  We’re going to write history, not erase history.

The Tuckers learned their family history around the dinner table.  That history led Wanda here in Angola a few years ago.  She did not know how to speak the language, but that didn’t matter.  When she arrived, Wanda said she felt something profound, like she’d come home.  That was her comment to me.  She called it the “connection without words.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to honor that connection between our people and to pay tribute to the generations of Angolans and American families, like the Tuckers, who have served in government for over — I’ve served in government for over 50 years.  I know I only look like I’m 40 years old, but I’ve been around hanging in the government for — (laughter) — I hate to admit it — for 50 years.

But in that 50 years, I’ve learned a lot.  Perhaps most importantly, I have learned that while history can be hidden, it cannot and should not be erased.  It should be faced.  It’s our duty to face our history: the good, the bad, and the ugly — the whole truth.  That’s what great nations do. 

That’s why I chose to speak here at the National Slavery Museum today, just as I toured.  And that’s why your president visited the National Museum of African American Culture in the — in Washington, D.C. — the second most-visited museum in the States — and he did it a few years ago.

He saw what I see: the stark contradiction between my country’s founding principles of liberty, justice, and equality and the way we long treated people from Angola and from throughout Africa.

I’ve often said America is the only nation in the world founded on an idea.  Most countries are founded based on race, ethnicity, religion, geography, or some other attribute.  But in the United States, founded on idea, one embedded in our Declaration of Independence, and that is that all men and women are created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout their lives. 

It’s abundantly clear today we have not lived up to that idea, but we’ve never fully walked away from it either.  And that’s due in no small part to the determination and dreams of African Americans, including Angolan Americans. 

The proud descendants of the diaspora who helped build my nation as they rebuilt their own families and their own sense of self.  They were the forebearers as well — resilient, faithful, even hopeful — hopeful that joy would cometh in the morning, as it says in the Bible; hopeful that our past would not be the story of our future; and hopeful, in time, the United States would write a different story in partnership with the people brought here in chains to my nation from Africa.  It’s a story of mutual respect and mutual progress. 

That’s the history that brings me here, the first American president ever to visit Angola.  Over time — (applause) — and I’m proud to be.  Over time, the relationship beca- — between our countries has been transformed from distance to genuine warmth.  Today, our relationship is the strongest it’s ever been. 

Throughout my presidency, it’s been my goal — goal of the United States to build a strong partnership with peoples and nations across the continent of Africa — true partnerships aimed at achieving shared goals, bringing to bear the dynamism of America’s private sector and the expertise of our government to support aspirations of African entrepreneurs, experts, leaders both inside and outside of government.

Because we know the challenge that define our age demand African leadership.  One out of every four human beings on Earth will live in Africa by the year 2050.  And the ingenuity and determination of young Africans in particular, like the young society leaders I just met with here today, will be undeniable forces in that human progress. 

That’s why I’m so optimistic, because of that generation.  In no small part, it will be in their hands and the hands of people across Africa to expand access to clean energy, to tackle threats of global health, to grow global — a global middle class. 

In many ways, Africa’s — Africa’s success is and will be the world’s success.  As I said at the United States — U.S.-Africa Summit: The United States is all in on Africa’s future. 

Two years ago, I pledged to deliver $55 million [billion] in new investments in Africa and to mobilize American businesses to close new deals with African partners. Two years ago, we are out way ahead of schedule.  More than 20 heads of U.S. government agencies and members of my Cabinet have traveled to Africa, delivering over $40 billion in investments thus far. 

And we have announced nearly 1,200 new business deals between African and American companies — and American companies — total will be worth $52 billion, including investments in solar energy, telecom, mobile finance, infrastructure, and partnerships with American airlines to expand opportunities for tourism so you don’t have to fly to Paris to get here — although Paris is pretty nice.  (Laughter.)

Here in Angola alone, the United States has invested $3 billion during my short presidency.  We see the bonds between our countries across sectors, from clean energy to health care to sports.  The American Basketball Associat- — National Basketball Association launched Basketball Africa League and Angola is the reigning champion.  (Applause.)

And we see the impact of American culture across — African culture across the American culture, from music to entertainment to fashion to arts and so much more. 

Student exchanges between our countries are essential and must increase.  Students in both countries can be — better understand one another if they know the country, if they visit the country, if they’re educated in the other country.  An increased connection between us makes a big difference.

Being all in on Africa means making sure African voices are heard at the tables that matter most.  Under my leadership, the United States brought — we brought in the African Union as a permanent member of the G20 economies, and we insisted on more African representation among the leaders of the International Monetary Fund and other world financial institutions. 

We’ve also pushed to ensure that developing nations do not — do not choose — have to choose between paying down unsustainable debt and being able to invest in their own people.  And we’re using our voi- — our own voice to increase Africa’s presence on the U.N. Security Council at the United Nations.  That should happen.  You can clap for that, folks.  You should be in there.  (Applause.)  

The United States continues to be the world’s largest provider of humanitarian aid and development assistance.  And that’s going to increase.  You know, that’s the right thing for the wealthiest nation in the world to do. 

And today, I’m announcing over $1 billion in new humanitarian support for Africans displaced from homes by historic droughts and food insecurity.  (Applause.)

But we know African leaders and citizens are seeking more than just aid.  You seek investment.  And so, the United States is expanding our relationship all across Africa — from assistance to aid to investment to trade — moving from patrons to partners to help bridge the infrastructure gap. 

I was told, by the way, when I got elected I could never get an infrastructure bill passed because the last guy spent eight years saying, “Next month” — four years saying, “Next month.”

Well, guess what, folks?  We’ve done it.  (Applause.)  A trillion — a trillion three hundred billion dollars for infrastructure to narrow the digital divide, drive inclusive, sustainable economic growth.

We’re looking for partners who understand that the right question in the year 2024 is not “What can the United States do for the people of Africa?”  It’s “What can we do together for the people of Africa?”  (Applause.)  That’s what we’re going to do.

Nowhere in Africa is the answer more exciting than here in Angola.  It starts with our governments, whose partnership is stronger, deeper, and more effective and active than any point in history.  It’s testament to your president, who had the vision to carry out this relationship — carry this relationship forward.  And it’s a testament to Angolan citizens across the private sector and civil society who have forged strong bonds with your American counterparts. 

And together, we’re engaged in a major joint project to close the infrastructure gap for the benefit of Angolans, Africans across the continent, Americans, and the world.  We’ll all benefit, as you benefit.  You’re — you can produce much more agriculture, for example, than states that can’t.  You’re going to increase their longevity, and you’re going to increase your impact and profit. 

It’s called the Lobito Corridor.  We’re building railroad lines from Angola to the Port of Lobito, in Zambia and the DRC, and, ultimately, all the way to the Atlantic — from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.  It’ll be the first trans-continental railroad in Africa and the biggest American rail investment outside of America.

And I must tell you up front, with American press here, I’m probably the most pro-rail guy in America.  (Laughter.)  I’ve ri- — I’ve ridden over 1,300,000 miles on a daily basis to my work, 210 — -20 miles a day for the last 50 years. 

Well, I didn’t do it as president.  I stayed in the White House a lot. 

But all kidding aside, folks, we can do this.  We can do this.  It’s in our power. 

It will not only generate significant employment, it will also allow individual countries to maximize their own domestic resources for the benefit of their people and sell critical minerals that power the world’s energy transformation and our fight against climate change and to transport them in a fraction of the time and lower cost.  A shipment that used to take over 45 days will now take 45 hours.  That’s a game changer.  That increases profit.  That increases opportunity.

The Lobito Corridor represents the right way to invest in full partnership with a country and its people. 

As part of this project, we will install enough clean energy power to power hundreds of thousands of homes, expand high-speed Internet across — for millions of Angolans, which is a cos- — as consequential today as electricity was two generations ago. 

And we’re investing in agriculture and food security, fulfilling the needs of countries without agricultural capacity and expanding opportunities for countries growing the crops; connecting farmers across the Lobito — along the Lobito Corridor to new markets, expanding opportunity and prosperity — you doing that, having the means to do it. 

The United States understands how we invest in Africa is as important as how much we invest.  In too many places, 10 years after the so-called investment was made, workers are still coming home on a dirt road and without electricity, a village without a school, a city without a hospital, or a country under crushing debt. 

We seek a better way: transparent, high-standard, open-access investments that protect workers and the rule of law and the environment.  It can be done and will be done.  (Applause.)

And, folks, the partnership between Angola and the United States also extends to supporting peace and security in this region and beyond. 

Pl- — Pr- — President Lourenço, I want to thank him for his leadership and mediation in regional conflicts.  I also want to thank him for Angola speaking out against Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.  It matters.  It matters when leaders speak out.  (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, I am in the final weeks of my presidency.  You don’t have to clap for that.  (Laughter.)  You can if you want. 

But I wanted to come to Angola.  Although I’ve been chairman of the Africa America subcommittee for a long time, I had never made it to Angola.  Because although I don’t know exactly what the future will hold, I know the future runs through Angola, through Africa.  I mean it sincerely.  (Applause.)  I’m not kidding.

I know that any nation that wants to thrive in the next century must work as partners with workers, entrepreneurs, and businesses here in Africa.  I know that the connection between our communities, our universities, our sports, our civil societies, our families, our people will only grow deeper.  We have to stay focused.

The story of Angola and the United States holds a lesson for the world: two nations with a shared history in evil of human bondage; two nations on opposite sides of the Cold War, defining struggle in the late part of the 20th century; and now, two nations standing shoulder to shoulder, working together every day for the mutual benefit of our people. 

It’s a reminder that no nation need be permanently a — the adversary of another, a testament to the human capacity for reconciliation, and proof that from every — from the horrors of slavery and war, there is a way forward. 

So, I stand here today — I mean this sincerely — deeply optimistic.

When I — by the way, 20 years ago, when I was a senator, I had a cranial aneurysm.  They s- — got me to the hospital in time.  I remember asking the doctor, “What are my ch-” — he said, “Oh, your chances are good.  They’re about 30 percent.”  (Laughter.)  (Inaudible.)  When it was all over, he was deciding whether or not it was congenital or environmental.  And I said, “I don’t give a damn.  I’m here.”  He said, “You know what your problem is, Senator?  You’re a congenital optimist.”  (Laughter and applause.)  I am.

About the possibilities and progress that lie just beyond the horizon.  Together, we can and will chart a futuche worther [future worthy] of great nations, worthy of the highest aspirations of our people. We just have to remember who we are: We’re Angolans; we’re Americans.   

As I often say in Ameri- — to the American people: There’s nothing — nothing beyond our capacity if we work together.  And today, I say to the people of Angola and all the people of Africa, there is nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together. 

Thank you.  And God bless you and keep you all safe.  (Applause.)  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  And thank you for waiting. 

And I got my hat.  Thanks, everybody.  I really mean it.  You’re very patient.

Q    Mr. President, anything on South Korea and martial law?

THE PRESIDENT:  I’m just getting briefed on it.  I’m just getting briefed.  I haven’t heard the details.

6:13 P.M. WAT

The post Remarks by President Biden Honoring the Past and Future of the Angolan-U.S. Relationship | Belas, Angola appeared first on The White House.

     The over one billion disabled people around the world have made incredible contributions — propelling us all forward in the pursuit of progress.  This International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we recommit to ensuring that people with disabilities are treated with dignity and respect and have every opportunity to reach their full potential.
     I remain proud that one of my earliest acts as a United States Senator was co-sponsoring the Rehabilitation Act, banning discrimination on the basis of disability by any entity funded by the Federal Government.  And later, I co-sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act, which banned discrimination against disabled people in workplaces, schools, public transit, and more — finally making a commitment to build an America for all Americans.  Together, these laws declared what we have always known to be true:  that Americans with disabilities deserve dignity, respect, and an equal chance at the American Dream. 
     Over 180 nations have passed similar laws in the years since, codifying their commitment to equal justice and opportunities for people with disabilities.  Still, these laws have not brought an end to the work we need to do.  Around the world, people with disabilities are subject to shameful discrimination, harassment, exploitation, abuse, and violence.  And too often, they struggle to get by — whether it is finding an accommodating job, enjoying public spaces, receiving quality education, or getting to and from school or work.
     That is why my Administration has worked to uplift people with disabilities in everything we do.  My American Rescue Plan provided $37 billion to strengthen home-based services so that more people with disabilities have the option to live independently at home.  My Bipartisan Infrastructure Law makes historic investments in making transit, rail, and airports more accessible, so that people with disabilities can commute and travel with dignity.  The Department of Justice issued a rule that ensures State and local governments make their web content and mobile apps more accessible to Americans with disabilities so they can more easily access local government services, emergency services, voting information, and publicly funded education.  And today, the Department of Labor announced a proposed rule that would gradually phase out certificates that permit employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the full minimum wage.
     My Administration has also worked with partners around the world to secure the rights of people with disabilities.  I released the first-ever Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally, which is working to ensure that people with disabilities are represented in our work to promote labor rights.  And I re-established the role of Special Advisor on International Disability Rights at the Department of State to ensure our foreign policy reflects our commitment to this community.  In October, my Administration participated in the first-ever G7 Ministerial on Inclusion and Disability, joining leaders around the world to advance disability rights.  Together with leaders from Central Asia, I launched a joint disability rights initiative to help make education and infrastructure more accessible. And as a co-chair of the Global Action on Disability Network, the United States is continuing to advocate for disability rights on the world stage.
     Today, I am thinking of a quote from disability rights activist Judy Heumann, who once wrote:  “Change never happens at the pace we think it should.  It happens over years of people joining together, strategizing, sharing, and pulling all the levers they possibly can.”  On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we show our gratitude for all the leaders and activists who have advocated and worked to make real our Nation’s founding promise — that every American has a right to be recognized and respected for who they are.  And we recommit to building a world where we support disability pride and give everyone an equitable chance at achieving their highest aspirations.
     NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 3, 2024, as International Day of Persons with Disabilities.  I call on all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs.
     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
third day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.
 
 
                               JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

The post A Proclamation on International Day of Persons with Disabilities , 2024 appeared first on The White House.

     The over one billion disabled people around the world have made incredible contributions — propelling us all forward in the pursuit of progress.  This International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we recommit to ensuring that people with disabilities are treated with dignity and respect and have every opportunity to reach their full potential.
     I remain proud that one of my earliest acts as a United States Senator was co-sponsoring the Rehabilitation Act, banning discrimination on the basis of disability by any entity funded by the Federal Government.  And later, I co-sponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act, which banned discrimination against disabled people in workplaces, schools, public transit, and more — finally making a commitment to build an America for all Americans.  Together, these laws declared what we have always known to be true:  that Americans with disabilities deserve dignity, respect, and an equal chance at the American Dream. 
     Over 180 nations have passed similar laws in the years since, codifying their commitment to equal justice and opportunities for people with disabilities.  Still, these laws have not brought an end to the work we need to do.  Around the world, people with disabilities are subject to shameful discrimination, harassment, exploitation, abuse, and violence.  And too often, they struggle to get by — whether it is finding an accommodating job, enjoying public spaces, receiving quality education, or getting to and from school or work.
     That is why my Administration has worked to uplift people with disabilities in everything we do.  My American Rescue Plan provided $37 billion to strengthen home-based services so that more people with disabilities have the option to live independently at home.  My Bipartisan Infrastructure Law makes historic investments in making transit, rail, and airports more accessible, so that people with disabilities can commute and travel with dignity.  The Department of Justice issued a rule that ensures State and local governments make their web content and mobile apps more accessible to Americans with disabilities so they can more easily access local government services, emergency services, voting information, and publicly funded education.  And today, the Department of Labor announced a proposed rule that would gradually phase out certificates that permit employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the full minimum wage.
     My Administration has also worked with partners around the world to secure the rights of people with disabilities.  I released the first-ever Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally, which is working to ensure that people with disabilities are represented in our work to promote labor rights.  And I re-established the role of Special Advisor on International Disability Rights at the Department of State to ensure our foreign policy reflects our commitment to this community.  In October, my Administration participated in the first-ever G7 Ministerial on Inclusion and Disability, joining leaders around the world to advance disability rights.  Together with leaders from Central Asia, I launched a joint disability rights initiative to help make education and infrastructure more accessible. And as a co-chair of the Global Action on Disability Network, the United States is continuing to advocate for disability rights on the world stage.
     Today, I am thinking of a quote from disability rights activist Judy Heumann, who once wrote:  “Change never happens at the pace we think it should.  It happens over years of people joining together, strategizing, sharing, and pulling all the levers they possibly can.”  On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we show our gratitude for all the leaders and activists who have advocated and worked to make real our Nation’s founding promise — that every American has a right to be recognized and respected for who they are.  And we recommit to building a world where we support disability pride and give everyone an equitable chance at achieving their highest aspirations.
     NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 3, 2024, as International Day of Persons with Disabilities.  I call on all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs.
     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
third day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.
 
 
                               JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

The post A Proclamation on International Day of Persons with Disabilities , 2024 appeared first on The White House.

Luanda, Angola

MODERATOR:  All right, well, thanks, everyone.  So, we’re going to do this gaggle on background, attributable to a senior administration official.

For your awareness, but not for your reporting, this is [senior administration official].  And by all means, feel free to share this audio with the pool. 

[Senior administration official] will share a few words at the top on how the bilat went and answer questions. 

Q    Any embargo?

MODERATOR:  No embargo.

All right, over to you. 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Okay, great, yeah.  So it was a really warm and substantive conversation that President Lourenço and President Biden had, along with their teams.  On both sides, it was a really substantive delegation and substantive set of points. 

So, I’ll just say on the U.S. side, as you all may know, in addition to President Biden and the national security team, we also had the head of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency; the Millennium Challenge Corporation; the DFC, Development Finance Corporation — which kind of shows you how deep this partnership with Angola has become. 

And the partnership with Angola was basically the theme.  President Biden started off talking about how this is a really transformed partnership over the last certainly centuries, but particularly the last three years.  So when you think about — this is a relationship that began in slavery, which President Biden has called the original sin of the United States; then went through the Cold War, when we were mostly on opposing sides.  But then, since President Lourenço took office, and since President Biden took office four years ago, it has really become a deep partnership and a really warm one.  So, President Biden and President Lourenço both reflected a lot on how far we’ve come on that.

Then, I would say the core of the conversation was on how that partnership is being manifested in the Lobito Corridor.  The Lobito Corridor, as you probably know by now, is a massive and really ambitious investment that the United States is partnering with other both external stakeholders as well as regional countries on.  We’ve invested upwards of $3 billion in it thus far.  More to come. 

But the important thing — and this is something that President Biden talked about — is it is not just about infrastructure, it is about people, were his exact words.  And it’s about people, it’s about the communities that it will touch.  It’s about investing in a responsible and sustainable way, ensuring there’s inclusive economic growth, including that there is contracting that is transparent and not corrupt. 

So, President Biden talked a lot about what he sees.  He loves trains, and he did say, “I’m a train guy, and I love trains,” but he did talk about how that works in the favor of people and communities as well.

As you likely know by now, President Biden and President Lourenço will have a chance to go see the Lobito Corridor in person tomorrow, probably along with many of you.  They will also be co-hosting regional leaders, so the leaders of Zambia, DRC, and Tanzania.  It’ll be the vice president of Tanzania and the president of the other two.  So it was sort of a preview of the conversation tomorrow where the presidents will be able to sort of see what’s been in action, lift up what the G7 has done in support of Lobito, and how it reflects the AU’s vision as well.  So that was huge area of focus. 

Other issues they discussed included global issues such as democracy — how democracy takes constant work; democracy is always fragile is something President Biden said. 

They talked a lot about regional issues.  President Lourenço has taken a really helpful leadership role in mediating the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  President Biden thanked him for that work.  They talked about the way forward on that, but President Lourenço shared his perspective. 

We talked about President Lourenço’s forthcoming chairmanship of the AU, which will start next year, and his helpful role in that regard.

Touched upon other regional and global issues, and then sort of finished off with just a reflection again of how far the partnership has come. 

So, happy to take any questions. 

Q    All right, first of all, can you share with us any details of this meeting that the President had with the descendant of one of the original slaves?  Or however you word that.

And then, Angola’s UNITA Party said today that the President missed a, quote, “great opportunity” to learn more about civil society, to interface with civil society and talk about human rights issues.  What’s your response to that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah, so on the descendant of slavery you mentioned, so this is the Tucker family.  So Wanda Tucker and then two of her other family members are here as well.  And these are descendants of the original shipment of slaves who came over, I think around 1619.  They will be at the President’s remarks later this afternoon as well. 

The President met with Wanda, at least last night — I’m not sure if the other two or not — and he obviously takes this story very personally in terms of the personal manifestation of it. 

But, yeah, the William Tucker Society has been a really important voice on sort of telling that story of the relationship.

On civil society: So, the President’s delegation has already met with civil society and youth leaders.  We also know civil society is not monolithic, so getting lots of voices.  The President will meet with other representatives from civil society.  So this is — you know, democracy and governance issues came up and are certainly something that I’d say our President did not miss an opportunity to talk about.

MODERATOR:  Trevor?

Q    Two, kind of, related ones.  I thought it was kind of interesting that Lourenço, in his opening remarks, brought up security and cooperation.  Directionally, where is that headed?  Is that headed towards a deeper, you know, alliance, partnership?  Where is that headed?

And then, you mentioned other regional issues and global issues.  Did China come up at all?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  China didn’t come up.

On security cooperation: Yeah, this is a really exciting, I’d say burgeoning area of cooperation that’s particularly picked up steam over the last couple of years.  Secretary Austin was here about a year ago, I believe sometime in 2023.  There have been other visits on this.  And just in the last few weeks, we have initiated the State Partnership Program, which we’re looking forward to deepening with the Angolans.

So, I do think this is an area of burgeoning cooperation, I would say.  It’s obviously a relatively new area.

Q    And then, did — sorry — did Russia come up at all?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  No.

Q    Thanks so much for doing this.  During —

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Oh, I’m so sorry, let me correct myself.  Russia came up briefly in the sense that there’s a concern of, with the war in Ukraine, there may be arms that will end up in the African continent, and that represents, you know, a risk security wise.

The President also did thank President Lourenço for his principled stand on Ukraine. 

Q    Thanks for doing this.  Did Biden bring up any new investments that could be going to the Lobito Corridor in terms of just new funding?  Or did that come up?  I know there’s been talk that there would be some deliverables, but was that mentioned at all during the meeting?  Or —

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  The President’s remarks on Lobito were much more, sort of, the principle behind it, what we’re trying to demonstrate by Lobito.  But there are some investments and announcements that are coming out.  I’m not sure if they’re out yet, so I’ll defer you to [senior administration official], who I think is speaking with you all later on Lobito.

Q    Okay.  And then, just one more.  President Lourenço brought up — during his remarks, he touched on, you know, how he would like to see more engagement from U.S. investors.  Was there any more conversation around, you know, like U.S. companies coming to Angola and Africa more broadly?  What, kind of, was touched on there, if anything?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  Absolutely.  This is part of, I think, what the President has pushed forward on Lobito.  And more broadly, under President Biden in general, there’s been a record number of Cabinet officials who have come to Africa, who often bring with them, sort of, the commercial diplomacy aspect as well. 

Tomorrow, at the Lobito Corridor Summit, there will be companies there who will be speaking about their investment.  So this is definitely, I would say, front and center of how they’re thinking about it. 

Q    Just one more.  Sorry.  Did President-elect Trump come up during the meeting?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  No.  President Lourenço didn’t raise it.  Obviously, all these conversations we have are in the context of there is a transition coming.  Fortunately, Africa policy has long been bipartisan.  So, while we obviously can’t predict what the new team will do, we’ve seen a lot of support for investment projects from the other side.  And we’ve heard good support from both sides of the aisle in terms of supporting Angola’s leadership on eastern DRC. 

So that would — I would say it was the only way it was even tangentially talked about.

Q    The media was asking questions about the pardon, and then Biden didn’t answer them, but he made a joke about “and welcome to America.”  Just wondering, (inaudible) —

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  It didn’t come up.  Actually, it didn’t.

Q    They didn’t —

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  There was mention, no.

Q    I figured that was the case.

Q    I was wondering whether you could elaborate a bit on this, on what you just said about Russia and how it could lead to more, like, arms coming into Africa.  And where exactly — have you seen proof of it already?  You know, that kind of thing. 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  It was actually a pretty brief comment in the context of overall the security environment.  So it wasn’t — I actually can’t elaborate because that was as far as it went.

Q    And on the DRC, like, anything more you can share?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  Yeah, yeah. 

So, on the DRC — so you’re likely tracking President Lourenço has led the Luanda Process, which we really commend him for.  That’s been a partnership with Avril Haines, our Director of National Intelligence.  President Lourenço, you know, continues to play a pretty strong role.  The op tempo of those meetings has increased.  We had two ministerials in the last 10 days on that.  There’s been a head of state level meeting announced now for mid-December, so there’s some discussion of that. 

Overall, you know, what President Biden conveyed on that was, first, like, “Thank you, President Lourenço,” and then, second, that he has — President Biden has heard bipartisan support for the mediation efforts.  And, you know, the conflict in eastern DRC benefits no one.  Potential investors, the human cost.  So, President Biden basically expressed that he hopes that the partnership on mediating that will continue.

Q    Is the investment, like, in the Lobito Corridor or any of the other public health or energy investments, are any of those contingent on the next administration continuing to disburse the money, or is the money already there?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I defer you to the Lobito Corridor gurus because I don’t want to give you bad —

MODERATOR:  Yeah, I think we’re trying to work a briefing for [senior administration official] later today, maybe after the speech, just to preview Lobito and everything.

Q    Okay.  But just in terms of how Trump only adjacently came up, like not directly came up, because of the context of the transition — was that because there was any concern about whether this work would continue or (inaudible)?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I mean, I think it’s just we don’t want to speak for the next administration.  We don’t know what choices they’ll make.  But I’ll say, you know, there’s a lot of private sector energy already.  There’s a lot of other stakeholders.  This isn’t a U.S.-exclusively endeavor.  It’s a G7 endeavor, Africa Finance Corporation, AFDB — development bank.  So there’s a lot of other players as well, but I think we’ll hear more tomorrow on that.

MODERATOR:  Thank you all.  Hope this was helpful.

The post Background Press Gaggle on President Biden’s Meeting with President Lourenço of Angola appeared first on The White House.

Luanda, Angola

MODERATOR:  All right, well, thanks, everyone.  So, we’re going to do this gaggle on background, attributable to a senior administration official.

For your awareness, but not for your reporting, this is [senior administration official].  And by all means, feel free to share this audio with the pool. 

[Senior administration official] will share a few words at the top on how the bilat went and answer questions. 

Q    Any embargo?

MODERATOR:  No embargo.

All right, over to you. 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Okay, great, yeah.  So it was a really warm and substantive conversation that President Lourenço and President Biden had, along with their teams.  On both sides, it was a really substantive delegation and substantive set of points. 

So, I’ll just say on the U.S. side, as you all may know, in addition to President Biden and the national security team, we also had the head of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency; the Millennium Challenge Corporation; the DFC, Development Finance Corporation — which kind of shows you how deep this partnership with Angola has become. 

And the partnership with Angola was basically the theme.  President Biden started off talking about how this is a really transformed partnership over the last certainly centuries, but particularly the last three years.  So when you think about — this is a relationship that began in slavery, which President Biden has called the original sin of the United States; then went through the Cold War, when we were mostly on opposing sides.  But then, since President Lourenço took office, and since President Biden took office four years ago, it has really become a deep partnership and a really warm one.  So, President Biden and President Lourenço both reflected a lot on how far we’ve come on that.

Then, I would say the core of the conversation was on how that partnership is being manifested in the Lobito Corridor.  The Lobito Corridor, as you probably know by now, is a massive and really ambitious investment that the United States is partnering with other both external stakeholders as well as regional countries on.  We’ve invested upwards of $3 billion in it thus far.  More to come. 

But the important thing — and this is something that President Biden talked about — is it is not just about infrastructure, it is about people, were his exact words.  And it’s about people, it’s about the communities that it will touch.  It’s about investing in a responsible and sustainable way, ensuring there’s inclusive economic growth, including that there is contracting that is transparent and not corrupt. 

So, President Biden talked a lot about what he sees.  He loves trains, and he did say, “I’m a train guy, and I love trains,” but he did talk about how that works in the favor of people and communities as well.

As you likely know by now, President Biden and President Lourenço will have a chance to go see the Lobito Corridor in person tomorrow, probably along with many of you.  They will also be co-hosting regional leaders, so the leaders of Zambia, DRC, and Tanzania.  It’ll be the vice president of Tanzania and the president of the other two.  So it was sort of a preview of the conversation tomorrow where the presidents will be able to sort of see what’s been in action, lift up what the G7 has done in support of Lobito, and how it reflects the AU’s vision as well.  So that was huge area of focus. 

Other issues they discussed included global issues such as democracy — how democracy takes constant work; democracy is always fragile is something President Biden said. 

They talked a lot about regional issues.  President Lourenço has taken a really helpful leadership role in mediating the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  President Biden thanked him for that work.  They talked about the way forward on that, but President Lourenço shared his perspective. 

We talked about President Lourenço’s forthcoming chairmanship of the AU, which will start next year, and his helpful role in that regard.

Touched upon other regional and global issues, and then sort of finished off with just a reflection again of how far the partnership has come. 

So, happy to take any questions. 

Q    All right, first of all, can you share with us any details of this meeting that the President had with the descendant of one of the original slaves?  Or however you word that.

And then, Angola’s UNITA Party said today that the President missed a, quote, “great opportunity” to learn more about civil society, to interface with civil society and talk about human rights issues.  What’s your response to that?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah, so on the descendant of slavery you mentioned, so this is the Tucker family.  So Wanda Tucker and then two of her other family members are here as well.  And these are descendants of the original shipment of slaves who came over, I think around 1619.  They will be at the President’s remarks later this afternoon as well. 

The President met with Wanda, at least last night — I’m not sure if the other two or not — and he obviously takes this story very personally in terms of the personal manifestation of it. 

But, yeah, the William Tucker Society has been a really important voice on sort of telling that story of the relationship.

On civil society: So, the President’s delegation has already met with civil society and youth leaders.  We also know civil society is not monolithic, so getting lots of voices.  The President will meet with other representatives from civil society.  So this is — you know, democracy and governance issues came up and are certainly something that I’d say our President did not miss an opportunity to talk about.

MODERATOR:  Trevor?

Q    Two, kind of, related ones.  I thought it was kind of interesting that Lourenço, in his opening remarks, brought up security and cooperation.  Directionally, where is that headed?  Is that headed towards a deeper, you know, alliance, partnership?  Where is that headed?

And then, you mentioned other regional issues and global issues.  Did China come up at all?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  China didn’t come up.

On security cooperation: Yeah, this is a really exciting, I’d say burgeoning area of cooperation that’s particularly picked up steam over the last couple of years.  Secretary Austin was here about a year ago, I believe sometime in 2023.  There have been other visits on this.  And just in the last few weeks, we have initiated the State Partnership Program, which we’re looking forward to deepening with the Angolans.

So, I do think this is an area of burgeoning cooperation, I would say.  It’s obviously a relatively new area.

Q    And then, did — sorry — did Russia come up at all?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  No.

Q    Thanks so much for doing this.  During —

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Oh, I’m so sorry, let me correct myself.  Russia came up briefly in the sense that there’s a concern of, with the war in Ukraine, there may be arms that will end up in the African continent, and that represents, you know, a risk security wise.

The President also did thank President Lourenço for his principled stand on Ukraine. 

Q    Thanks for doing this.  Did Biden bring up any new investments that could be going to the Lobito Corridor in terms of just new funding?  Or did that come up?  I know there’s been talk that there would be some deliverables, but was that mentioned at all during the meeting?  Or —

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  The President’s remarks on Lobito were much more, sort of, the principle behind it, what we’re trying to demonstrate by Lobito.  But there are some investments and announcements that are coming out.  I’m not sure if they’re out yet, so I’ll defer you to [senior administration official], who I think is speaking with you all later on Lobito.

Q    Okay.  And then, just one more.  President Lourenço brought up — during his remarks, he touched on, you know, how he would like to see more engagement from U.S. investors.  Was there any more conversation around, you know, like U.S. companies coming to Angola and Africa more broadly?  What, kind of, was touched on there, if anything?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  Absolutely.  This is part of, I think, what the President has pushed forward on Lobito.  And more broadly, under President Biden in general, there’s been a record number of Cabinet officials who have come to Africa, who often bring with them, sort of, the commercial diplomacy aspect as well. 

Tomorrow, at the Lobito Corridor Summit, there will be companies there who will be speaking about their investment.  So this is definitely, I would say, front and center of how they’re thinking about it. 

Q    Just one more.  Sorry.  Did President-elect Trump come up during the meeting?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  No.  President Lourenço didn’t raise it.  Obviously, all these conversations we have are in the context of there is a transition coming.  Fortunately, Africa policy has long been bipartisan.  So, while we obviously can’t predict what the new team will do, we’ve seen a lot of support for investment projects from the other side.  And we’ve heard good support from both sides of the aisle in terms of supporting Angola’s leadership on eastern DRC. 

So that would — I would say it was the only way it was even tangentially talked about.

Q    The media was asking questions about the pardon, and then Biden didn’t answer them, but he made a joke about “and welcome to America.”  Just wondering, (inaudible) —

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  It didn’t come up.  Actually, it didn’t.

Q    They didn’t —

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  There was mention, no.

Q    I figured that was the case.

Q    I was wondering whether you could elaborate a bit on this, on what you just said about Russia and how it could lead to more, like, arms coming into Africa.  And where exactly — have you seen proof of it already?  You know, that kind of thing. 

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  It was actually a pretty brief comment in the context of overall the security environment.  So it wasn’t — I actually can’t elaborate because that was as far as it went.

Q    And on the DRC, like, anything more you can share?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  Yeah, yeah. 

So, on the DRC — so you’re likely tracking President Lourenço has led the Luanda Process, which we really commend him for.  That’s been a partnership with Avril Haines, our Director of National Intelligence.  President Lourenço, you know, continues to play a pretty strong role.  The op tempo of those meetings has increased.  We had two ministerials in the last 10 days on that.  There’s been a head of state level meeting announced now for mid-December, so there’s some discussion of that. 

Overall, you know, what President Biden conveyed on that was, first, like, “Thank you, President Lourenço,” and then, second, that he has — President Biden has heard bipartisan support for the mediation efforts.  And, you know, the conflict in eastern DRC benefits no one.  Potential investors, the human cost.  So, President Biden basically expressed that he hopes that the partnership on mediating that will continue.

Q    Is the investment, like, in the Lobito Corridor or any of the other public health or energy investments, are any of those contingent on the next administration continuing to disburse the money, or is the money already there?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I defer you to the Lobito Corridor gurus because I don’t want to give you bad —

MODERATOR:  Yeah, I think we’re trying to work a briefing for [senior administration official] later today, maybe after the speech, just to preview Lobito and everything.

Q    Okay.  But just in terms of how Trump only adjacently came up, like not directly came up, because of the context of the transition — was that because there was any concern about whether this work would continue or (inaudible)?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I mean, I think it’s just we don’t want to speak for the next administration.  We don’t know what choices they’ll make.  But I’ll say, you know, there’s a lot of private sector energy already.  There’s a lot of other stakeholders.  This isn’t a U.S.-exclusively endeavor.  It’s a G7 endeavor, Africa Finance Corporation, AFDB — development bank.  So there’s a lot of other players as well, but I think we’ll hear more tomorrow on that.

MODERATOR:  Thank you all.  Hope this was helpful.

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