Analyst Osvaldo Mboco believes that the American president, Joe Biden, is visiting Angola because of the country’s geopolitical position in Africa, the importance of the Lobito Corridor and its mineral resources, and he advocates “playing the game” to safeguard Angolan interests.
Osvaldo Mboco emphasised that meetings at the highest level always produce effects that contribute significantly to cooperation in key areas such as the economy, security and sustainable development.
“There is one element that we cannot overlook, which is the US interest in the Angolan state because of its geographical position, its infrastructure, especially the Lobito Corridor, and also the geopolitical importance that Angola has on the African continent,” the international relations expert told Lusa.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, is visiting Angola between 13 and 15 October and is expected, together with his Angolan counterpart, João Lourenço, to strengthen cooperation between Luanda and Washington and “discuss greater collaboration on shared priorities,” said the Angolan Presidency.
Biden’s visit to the Portuguese-speaking African country, according to Osvaldo Mboco, stems from an “American strategy of closer ties with countries that have a very significant geopolitical position,” such as Angola, which can expect “greater investments” from the US.
“They (the US) can increase their involvement in larger projects in terms of infrastructure, technology, also looking a little at the agricultural sector and in fact consolidating the oil sector, which is the largest sector of cooperation between the two states,” he emphasised.
He even considered that if these sectors received some investment from the US – within the framework of Joe Biden’s visit – “it would be contributing to economic diversification, which is a strategy that Angola really wants to achieve”.
Mboco emphasised that what drives states, and particularly the US, are interests, insisting that the Americans have an interest in access to the Angolan state’s natural resources, in the question of the supply of oil and critical minerals.
The US can also seek “a guarantee of an energy security strategy” and in addition, he stressed, they see Angola as a key player in conflict management and resolution, in the stabilisation of southern and central Africa”.
He also believes that Washington expects Angola to “continue to make the structural and structuring reforms” that it has been making from the political, economic and judicial points of view, which “contribute significantly to promoting transparency, good governance, the fight against corruption and to improving Angola’s image in the international system,” he said.
The African country must, the analyst argued, adopt a diplomacy of ‘waistcoating’ so as ‘not to create any political irritants’ and jeopardise the interests of the major powers, namely China, Russia and the US, in the country.
Angola is one of the countries where there is a ‘race’ between the three great powers, but, he argued, “clearly, the central point for the country is to always safeguard its interests” with the states that have “greater expression compared to the others”, he defended.
Osvaldo Mboco also considered that Angola has adopted a “multi-vector foreign policy, seeking balances,” hence his vision of “diplomacy with flexibility,” believing that Biden’s visit “may even arouse greater interest on the part of countries like China and Russia to pay greater attention to the Angolan state.
Partnerships in the field of security, “due to the various risks and threats to the sovereignty of African states, which can sometimes have implications for global security,” and support for clean energies, should also emerge from the meeting between Lourenço and Biden, as the expert pointed out.
