WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to welcome Kenyan President William Ruto to the White House in May for a state visit after walking back his promise to visit Africa last year.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced Friday that the visit scheduled for May 23 would mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Kenya and “celebrate a partnership that benefits people.” of the two countries while affirming “our strategic partnership”. with Ruto’s country.
This “will strengthen our shared commitment to advancing peace and security, expanding our economic ties and defending democratic values together,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “The leaders will discuss ways to strengthen our cooperation in areas such as people-to-people ties, trade and investment, technological innovation, climate and clean energy, health and security.”
News of Ruto’s visit comes after Haiti announced this week that she is working on a formal agreement with Kenyan officials to secure the long-awaited deployment of Kenyan police forces there. High-ranking officials from the two countries recently met in the United States for three days to draft a memorandum of understanding and set a deadline for the arrival of forces from the East African country in Haiti.
Jean-Pierre added on Friday that beyond Kenya, Rutto’s visit to Washington “will reinforce the vision” that “African leadership is essential to meeting global priorities.”
First lady Jill Biden visited Kenya last February during a five-day, two-country trip. tour of the continent. The White House also confirmed that Ruto and Kenya’s first lady, Rachel Ruto, would be honored with a dinner with the Bidens.
The White House hosted a state dinner celebrating its close ally Australia in October, which follows the president’s failure to stop there earlier in 2023 to focus on debt limit negotiations in Washington. But these festivities last fall were somewhat toned down given The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Biden said in December 2022 that he would visit sub-Saharan Africa the following year, which would have made him the first U.S. president to visit there in a decade. The president committed at the end of a US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington with 49 leaders, in which he suggested the continent would be a strategic focus as the United States made political and financial commitments.
But other priorities came into play in 2023. Biden managed last-minute trips to Israel And Vietnamand a secret trip to Ukraine. He ended last year by abstaining from a December UN conference on climate change in Dubai, while send Vice President Kamala Harris in her placeand I have never planned a trip to Africa.
Biden is now seeking re-election in the November elections while juggling a series of pressing foreign security issues, including the war between Israel and Hamas and continued discussions in Congress over foreign aid proposed For Ukraine at war with Russia.
Friday he traveled to East Palestine, Ohio, after saying for months that he would visit the site of a Norfolk Southern train derailment which released a cocktail of dangerous chemicals and caught fire in February 2023.
Vice President Kamala also spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Friday and was asked about Washington’s “growing transitional mentality” towards Africa – a characterization she disputed, retorting that “the future must be about partnership and investment”.
“I believe we need to think differently about the relationship between the United States and the African continent,” the vice president said, adding: “We look at the future of the continent and how it will affect the world: that is indisputable . There will be a direct impact.
Harris noted that the median age on the African continent is 19 and that population growth means that, in coming decades, up to one in four people in the world will live there.
“Looking ahead, we need to see the innovation happening now and partner with African leaders and nations,” she said. “And change the way we think, in a way that is not about helping, but about partnership. Not what we do for the continent, but what we do with the continent and its leaders. »
