US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Friday touted the fruits of a new “mutually beneficial” economic strategy toward Africa, contrasting the damage caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s practices.
“The United States is all in on Africa, and all in with Africa,” she said during a visit to Senegal, part of a push by US President Joe Biden’s administration to boost relations with a continent where Washington faces increased competition from other major powers. “Our engagement is not transactional, it’s not for show, and it’s not for the short-term.”
Yellen, who had attended a US-Africa summit hosted by Biden in Washington last month, said the president, vice president and other Cabinet secretaries would travel to African countries this year.
Photo: Reuters
“The world is finally catching up to recognizing Africa’s contributions — past and future,” she said on a visit to a business incubator in Dakar, her first stop on a three-country tour of the continent.
She said the US was seeking “to modernize our relationship by focusing on what we can do together, rather than what we can do for each other.”
The relationship would be “based on mutual cooperation and greater ambition,” she said.
Yellen cited the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as major economic headwinds for Africa.
“Let me be clear: the single best thing we can do to help the global economy is to end Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine,” Yellen said.
“Russia’s war and weaponization of food has exacerbated food insecurity and caused untold suffering, and the global economic headwinds caused by the actions of a single man — [Russian] President [Vldamir] Putin — is creating an unnecessary drag on” economies, she said.
In her speech, which followed a meeting with Senegalese Minister of Economy, Planning and Cooperation Oulimata Sarr, Yellen highlighted the continent’s promising demographics.
However, she said that economic growth would only come with adequate job opportunities and investments.
US investments on the continent are “motivated by our mutually beneficial, long-term partnership — the goal is to generate positive economic returns while fostering sustainable debt,” she said.
African governments need the “fiscal space” to make “important” public investments, she added.
“We believe that the international community, including China, needs to provide meaningful debt relief to help countries regain their footing,” she said.
Yellen’s speech came a day after she announced the Treasury had begun taking measures at home to prevent a default on US government debt.
In Dakar, she described US plans to partner with African states on climate change, health and security issues.
She reiterated US support for the African Union to join the G20.
She said international institutions needed to be reformed, but also that African governments needed greater accountability and transparency.
“Countries need to be wary of shiny deals that may be opaque and ultimately fail to actually benefit the people they were purportedly designed to help in the first place,” Yellen said.
“This can leave countries with a legacy of debt, diverted resources, and environmental destruction,” she said.
In an implicit contrast with China, which takes a hands-off approach in countries where it invests, Yellen said the US has taken a “different” tack, prioritizing “transparency, good governance, accountability and environmental sustainability.”
“While our approach may be exacting, we believe it delivers lasting results,” she said.
A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her. Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected. On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. A neighbor hearing
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
RSS