US Ambassador to the UN to Visit Three African Countries – Reports

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Washington, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023InternationalIndiaAfricaAt the end of the US–Africa Leaders’ Summit in December, US President Joe Biden announced that in 2023 he plans to become the first US leader in a decade to visit sub-Saharan Africa.The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, will start her three-country African trip on 25 January, reports say, citing Washington’s mission to the UN.According to the mission, it hopes to “to affirm and strengthen [America’s] partnerships with key current and former UN Security Council members” during Thomas-Greenfield’s visit.The trip of the former US assistant secretary of state for Africa will start in Ghana (which is in the second year of a two-year term in the UN Security Council), followed by Mozambique (starting its two-year term on the council for the first time) and Kenya (whose two-year term on the council ended on 31 December 2022).Thomas-Greenfield is planning in Ghana to meet with women leaders and civil society members. She will then spend 26 and 27 January in Mozambique, meeting with UN officials, businessmen, graduates of US exchange programs, international relations students and climate change activists.In Kenya, marked as “a key partner” by the US mission, the ambassador will discuss humanitarian issues such as drought, displacement and the connection the global food crisis has with the Ukraine conflict. During her visit on 28 and 29 January, she will meet refugees expecting relocation to the US as well as representatives of Kenya-based “green” businesses.Thomas-Greenfield is the second US Cabinet member to visit Africa in January, after the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who started her trip last week, covering Senegal, Zambia and South Africa.The visits are part of what the western media describes as “Biden’s big push” into Africa. Commenting on the matter, experts earlier told Sputnik that Washington’s efforts to counter China’s influence in Africa are unlikely to bear fruit because of a fundamental difference in approach. The US also hopes to isolate Russia politically and economically, which many African states oppose, remembering the productive cooperation which proliferated during the Soviet era, experts note.

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