WILMINGTON, Del. – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Appropriations Committees, today published in The American Interest a long-form memorandum to President Trump and his administration that highlights the importance of the United States’ relationship with Africa. The piece makes clear why U.S. engagement with the continent has long received bipartisan support and outlines a series of policy suggestions for strengthening our important relationships in this fast-growing part of the world.
The introduction of Senator Coons’ memorandum is below. Click here to read the full piece in The American Interest.
U.S.-Africa Policy: Recommendations for President Trump
An open memorandum to President Trump on retaining the U.S. leadership role in Africa and remaining competitive with China.
Mr. President, since taking office you have already confronted a series of demanding domestic and international policy challenges. In a piece I published in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas the month after your election, I outlined five foreign policy areas on which I hope Democrats and Republicans in Congress will be able to work constructively with your Administration.
In this memorandum, I wish to call your attention to a region of the world that rarely receives sufficient focus from Presidents of either party: sub-Saharan Africa. When past Presidents have focused U.S. efforts on building partnerships with the African continent, they have often found that members of Congress of both parties are eager to engage and to support new initiatives.
The next four years of our engagement with sub-Saharan Africa will be critical for African stability and prosperity, U.S. leadership in the region, and the strength of our business opportunities across the continent. If we take decisive action on the continent, this can be an African century—with direct, tangible benefits for our own economic growth and national security.
But if we fail to act, not only do we forego significant opportunities for business and humanitarian partnerships, but entire regions of Africa could also descend into violence and conflict, threatening global stability and providing a fertile environment for extremism to take root and grow. I urge you and your Administration to build on years of bipartisan collaboration with a part of the world that is increasingly vital to American security and prosperity.
Make no mistake: When it comes to economic and strategic influence in the fastest-growing part of the world, we are in direct competition with China. But Beijing plays by a different set of rules. In its engagement with sub-Saharan Africa, China, rather than prioritizing democratic norms or good governance, takes a mercantilist approach, involving itself in African affairs with no strings attached. Human rights, press freedom, and the value of legitimate, democratic governance are of little to no concern to Chinese policymakers. Instead, China mobilizes its vast state financial resources to invest broadly in infrastructure projects across Africa in exchange for the ability to extract natural resources.
In 2009, China eclipsed the United States as the continent’s largest trading partner. At $222 billion in 2014, Africa’s trade with China is now three times greater than the continent’s trade with the United States. While 2008 was the only year in the past decade where Chinese foreign direct investment flows to Africa exceeded those of the United States, the current trajectory indicates that Chinese investment will surpass that of the United States in the coming years as China continues to increase its financing commitments on the continent.
If the United States wants to remain competitive with countries like China—and do so in a way that promotes democracy, accountability, and the rule of law—we need to act promptly and decisively to reassert our role in Africa. That means placing a greater priority on conditional U.S. investment and more effective U.S. foreign assistance. In this memorandum, I explain why Africa matters to the United States and offer a number of ideas for increasing our focus on this important but often overlooked part of the world.