US to deepen ties with hotly courted Africa

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (left) attending a bilateral meeting with South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in Pretoria on Jan 26.. PHOTO: AFP

JOHANNESBURG - US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday that Washington would deepen its ties with African nations, as she wound up a continental tour in South Africa.

Dr Yellen arrived after stops in Senegal and Zambia in a trip aimed at forging a new mutually beneficial economic strategy towards Africa, where countries are being aggressively courted by Russia and China.

“The United States is committed to working with you to deepen our ties: not for show, not for the short term, but for the long haul,” she said after visiting a Ford plant in Pretoria. “A thriving Africa is in the interest of the United States.”

Her visit to South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised economy, came hot on the heels of a trip by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was in Pretoria earlier this week.

“Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine has raised energy prices and exacerbated food insecurity. These shocks have taught us about the importance of secure and resilient supply chains,” Dr Yellen said.

During a meeting earlier with South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, she praised an energy transition partnership in which Britain, France, Germany and the European Union have pledged US$8.5 billion (S$11 billion) to help the country decarbonise its coal-dependent economy.

“This partnership represents South Africa’s bold first step towards expanding electricity access and reliability and creating a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy,” Dr Yellen said.

Mr Godongwana thanked the US for the commitment, noting in a statement that it came at a critical time as the country grapples with grinding energy shortages.

But he added that developed nations could do more, in particular by ensuring that financial support includes a much larger grant-funding component.

Africa’s “special needs and circumstances” needed to be recognised globally, Mr Godongwana said, adding that many of its countries were resource-dependent and suffered from high levels of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment. AFP

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