“This will not be your typical summit,” said Thomas-Greenfield. “It is an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen U.S. ties with Africa and highlight our commitment to addressing issues that affect us collectively.”
By Kemi Osukoya
August 4, 2014
When President Barack Obama welcomes African leaders to Capital Hill for a three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, his administration’s goals is to enhance America’s trade and investment partnership with Africa and to build on the U.S.’s commitment to Africa’s democratic development, security and its people, Assistant Secretary Linda Thomas-Greenfield said last week during a meeting at the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C.
“This will not be your typical summit,” said Thomas-Greenfield. “It is an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen U.S. ties with Africa and highlight our commitment to addressing issues that affect us collectively.”
Thomas-Greenfield said the summit, which will take place at the White House and the State Department and other locations across Washington, D.C. Monday through Thursday is unlike other previous formal head-of-state events.
The event is designed as an informal, interactive and conversational participatory format that “reflects the multilayered, long-term partnership that characterizes the U.S. relationship with Africa.”
Thomas-Greenfield said the event will build upon President Obama’s visits to Africa last year in which he visited three African countries—Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania—and launched the ambitious Power Africa initiative.
Many African leaders, including 51 heads of state, government representatives and other senior leaders from across Africa, are expected to attend the summit.
The three-day event is the first such event of its kind and the largest event any U.S. president has ever held with African leaders.
Thomas-Greenfield said among issues on the agenda are renewal of African Growth Opportunity Act, increasing trade and investment opportunities between the U.S. and Africa, peace and regional stability, governance and governing for the next generation of Africans, investing in women for peace and prosperity, food security and health.
Many critics, including Africans and Americans, have tried to minimize the importance of the event and the administration’s latest efforts and its relationship with Africa as a whole. Thomas-Greenfield addressed this and said those critics have overlooked “five solid decades of collaboration and cooperation” between the U.S. and several African countries.
“We know the United States is not the only country looking to partner with African nations on a regional or bilateral basis. The suggestion that the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit is a reaction to some other event or some other country’s activities in Africa overlooks our five solid decades of collaboration and cooperation,” she said.
The Commerce Department and Bloomberg Philanthropies will also co-host the U.S.-Africa Business Forum.
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