PRETORIA, South Africa — The United States has been grappling with the growing influence of China, Russia and Middle Eastern nations across Africa, a situation made more acute in recent months by the competition to win partners in the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken unveiled the Biden administration’s main approach to addressing that challenge and other strategic goals in Africa: promoting democratic governance across the continent.
“History shows that strong democracies tend to be more stable and less prone to conflict — and that the poor governance, exclusion and corruption inherent in weak democracies makes them more vulnerable to extremist movements and foreign interference,” Mr. Blinken said in a speech at the University of Pretoria, on the first stop of a tour of Africa that will also take him to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
It is not clear how his message will be received. The United States could risk alienating some African leaders who prefer authoritarian rule or those who see Washington’s governance push as imperial power projection.
“If your tactic is to approach African countries and say, ‘Listen, you must be democratic and use our model, it works,’ I think it’s bound to lead to some failure,” said Naledi Pandor, the foreign minister of South Africa, who met with Mr. Blinken on Monday.
“I do agree with Tony that all countries and peoples deserve the right to exercise their civil and political rights,” she added. “But I think given history, the approach has to be somewhat different, and I would recommend a greater attention to tools that Africans have developed.”
China, Mr. Blinken claims, is the greatest threat to American power. China has an immense presence in Africa with state-owned companies building infrastructure, the Chinese military strengthening a base in Djibouti, and the Communist Party opening a pan African leadership school in Tanzania. However, there has been some resistance from Africans to Chinese companies’ loan and labor practices.
Continue reading about the relations between Asia and the U.S.
Middle Eastern countries are also playing a growing part in Africa: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are all influential in the Horn of Africa. Turkey also has the largest embassy in the world in Somalia where it also manages the main port and airport.
Mr. Blinken insisted at a news conference before his speech that the administration’s Africa strategy was not centered on rivalry with China and Russia. But a White House document released the same day said the effort to strengthen “open societies” was partly intended to “counter harmful activities” by China, Russia and “other foreign actors.”
Mr. Blinken said in his speech that the U.S. strategy “reflects the region’s complexity, its diversity, its agency,” and “focuses on what we will do with African nations and peoples, not for African nations and peoples.”
He also said pandemic recovery, health security, climate adaptation and environmental conservation were pillars of the Africa strategy — consistent with what President Biden has named as his global priorities.
The Biden administration has made the promotion of democracy a key focus of its foreign strategy. This is a throwback back to Democratic and Republican administrations prior to President Donald J. Trump’s, which shunned the goal.
Contrary to the post-9/11 approach to democracy-building which was under heavy American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively, the Biden administration wants to de-emphasize hard power in Africa.
Mr. Blinken said the administration would carry out governance stability programs with local partners “in places where conditions are ripe for conflict” — projects enabled by the Global Fragility Act of 2019 that gives $200 million annually in Congressional-approved funds for a decade.
The strategy document says the United States aims to “stem the recent tide of authoritarianism and military takeovers” in part “through a targeted mix of positive inducements and punitive measures such as sanctions.”
Bob Wekesa, deputy director of the African Center for the Study of the United States at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said “the new strategy is to move away from that preaching and proselytizing approach of the past, but at the same time, it doesn’t go very far away from it.”
Mr. Blinken and the National Security Council chose to announce the new strategy in South Africa because it is the continent’s largest democracy and an important U.S. trade partner.
But American diplomacy here has run into obstacles. U.S. officials had difficulty convincing South African counterparts to change their neutrality on the Ukraine conflict. South Africa was among 17 African countries that abstained in March’s vote on a U.N. General Assembly Resolution condemning Russia. This contrasts to the 28 African countries that voted for the resolution.
Mr. Blinken sought to highlight Russia’s brutality on Monday, asserting the economic devastation caused by the pandemic was “deepened by Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine.” He cited World Bank estimates saying the invasion could add 40 million people — mostly in Africa — to the ranks of the 193 million people worldwide who need humanitarian food assistance.
Ms. Pandor criticized the Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act, which was passed in May by the U.S. House of Representatives. It would in part identify Africans who are working with Russians sanctioned under the United States.
Gustavo de Carvalho (South African Institute of International Affairs) is a senior researcher on Russia and Africa relations. He stated that African countries don’t pick sides between Russia and China but are driven by selfinterest.
“In some instances, it’s slightly more pragmatic,” he said.
As Africa’s most advanced economy, South Africa has nurtured trade ties with the United States and Europe. South Africa is China’s largest trading partner. However, the United States has a trade surplus with South Africa. Their trade reached $21 billion in the last year.
Many South African citizens called on Cyril Ramaphosa to condemn Russia. But he has resisted.
In June, he went to Beijing to attend a multinational summit. Then he flew to Bavarian Alps to participate in a Group of 7 meeting. China: Ramaphosa signed a declaration calling for talks between Kyiv, Moscow, and impartial humanitarian assistance. In Germany, South Africa’s main summit statement dodged the Ukraine issue, and instead focused on climate change and energy policy.
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Ms. Pandor likewise distanced herself from tensions between China and the United States on Monday, stating that any involvement would be harmful for African nations.
“These are two great powers, the two biggest economies in the world,” she said. “They’ve got to find a way of working together to allow us to grow.”
Edward WongReport from Pretoria, South Africa. Lynsey ChuteReported from Johannesburg. Declan WalshContributed reporting from Nairobi Kenya
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