Obama courting Africa hard: Aims for US to usurp China’s lead

By Aaron Maasho and Pascal Fletcher of Reuters

CAMP LEMONNIER Djibouti/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Ask Major-General Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., the top U.S. military officer in Africa, how he thinks U.S. and European-backed African troops are faring in their war on Islamist militants in Somalia, and his answer comes back smartly: "Pretty darn good!".

But when "son of Africa" U.S. President Barack Obama hosts 50 African leaders in Washington this week, the admiration may be less than mutual. Many Africans feel America is lagging behind China and others in its engagement with their continent.

The Aug. 4-6 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, billed by U.S. officials as a first-of-its-kind event, looks like a belated imitation of Africa gatherings hosted in recent years by China, India, Japan and the continent's former colonial master Europe.

The world's richest nation has been slow coming to the party of an economically rising Africa, long dismissed as a hopeless morass of poverty and war, but now offering investors a huge market for everything from banking and retail to mobile phones.

"The United States has fallen perhaps a little bit behind in the race to win African hearts and minds. So I think this is an attempt to compete with the likes of China and the European Union," said Christopher Wood, an analyst in economic diplomacy at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

The top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Linda Thomas-Greenfield bridles at suggestions that the Obama administration is playing catch-up. "Absolutely not," she said.

"Our relationship with Africa is a very strong historic relationship … We see this as an opportunity to reaffirm that to African leaders," she said in a pre-summit conference call.

CHINA RACES AHEAD

China overtook the United States as Africa's biggest trade partner in 2009. Its leaders have criss-crossed the continent, proffering multi-billion dollar loans, aid and investment deals.

From Malabo to Maputo, Africa is studded with signs of Beijing's diplomatic and commercial outreach: Chinese-built roads, bridges, airports, stadiums, ministries and presidencies.

Since 2009, Obama, despite his African blood through a Kenyan father, has been a far less frequent visitor. His first substantial trip to the continent was only made last year.

Washington's many embassies in Africa – imposing concrete fortresses built to protect against angry mobs or terrorist attacks – project a cautious engagement from an Obama administration highly sensitive to a home public which has no appetite for overseas interventions after Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even U.S. Army Major-General Grigsby, surrounded by F-18s, C130 transports, helicopters and Humvees at his Camp Lemonnier toehold in the turbulent Horn of Africa, acknowledges the U.S. military's "small footprint" on a continent where flaring Islamist insurgencies are stirring international concern.

Security, governance and democracy will be on the agenda when Obama engages the leaders in an "interactive" discussion on Wednesday, following business talks with U.S. CEOs on Tuesday and discussions about health and wildlife trafficking on Monday.

Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan are among a few left off the invitation list because they are not "in good standing" with Washington for failing to respect human rights and democracy.

Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone have dropped out because of the deadly Ebola epidemic ravaging their nations. Thomas-Greenfield said ways of fighting the outbreak would be discussed at the summit.

TRADE IN FOCUS

Some concrete initiatives are expected from the meeting.

The United States will announce nearly $1 billion in business deals for the region, increase funding for peacekeeping in six African countries and boost food and power programmes.

Uppermost too will be Obama's strong recommendation for Congress to renew the African Growth Opportunity Act, or AGOA, a 14-year-old trade programme giving most African countries duty-free access to U.S. markets that expires on Sept. 30 next year.

Total U.S. two-way trade in Africa has actually fallen off in recent years, to about $60 billion in 2013, far eclipsed by the European Union with over $200 billion and China, whose $170 billion is a huge increase from $10 billion in 2000, according to a recent Africa in Focus post by the Brookings Institution.

While African leaders are keen on the AGOA renewal, Robert Besseling, Principal Africa Analyst, Economics and Country Risk, at IHS consultancy, said some are seeking better terms of trade.

"Some countries are skeptical about AGOA because it is oriented towards the U.S. companies and can be politically manipulated," Besseling said. For example Swaziland was cut from AGOA last month due to U.S. concerns over democracy there.

Obama officials are hoping to leverage U.S. corporations like General Electric Co, Caterpillar Inc and Procter & Gamble Co into more business opportunities in Africa amid intense competition from across the globe.

"In the boards of directors of big global U.S. companies, more and more people are raising their hands at meetings and saying 'why aren't we in Africa?'," said Toby Moffett, a former Congressman from Connecticut and a senior adviser at law firm Mayer Brown LLP, who has represented African governments.

Orji Uzor Kalu, a Nigerian businessman with oil, tourism and other interests in West Africa, echoed such complaints. "I'm not seeing the effort the U.S. made in Asia, they're not making the same effort in Africa," Kalu said from his Washington D.C. home.

BUILDING SECURITY, DEMOCRACY

Pointing to an Africa map showing hotspots like Somalia, Major-General Grigsby toes the line of a cautious security policy that involves keeping U.S. "boots on the ground" to a minimum while financing African peacekeeping and local training.

"My responsibility from a regional approach is to assist my East African teammates to be able to neutralize violent extremists and conduct their crisis response," Grigsby told Reuters at the Africa Command's Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, where some 3,500 U.S. service personnel are based.

Obama said last year during his Africa trip his country put "muscle behind African efforts" to fight Islamist militants or brutal warlords in the Sahel, Central Africa and Somalia.

Although French forces did the heavy lifting on the ground in driving back an offensive by al Qaeda-allied Islamists in Mali in 2012, Washington has stepped up training African armies and deploying surveillance drones – to Niamey and N'Djamena besides those already operating over the Horn of Africa.

Some of the latest U.S. initiatives have clearly played to American domestic opinion and social media campaigns, such as sending a specialist team to help Nigeria search for the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist group Boko Haram.

While U.S. officials say Washington remains influential, it may no longer wield the diplomatic clout it once had in Africa when it was squaring up to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Many noted how Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, an ally in turbulent central Africa, went ahead in February with signing into law tougher penalties against homosexuality, ignoring an appeal from Obama who warned it would "complicate" relations.

This kind of diplomatic slap in the face "shows they have to reboot the relationship" with Africa, IHS's Besseling said.

On Friday, Uganda's constitutional court struck down the law, citing procedural irregularities.

African leaders have made clear they do not take kindly to moral lectures from Western leaders. By contrast, Beijing's pledges of aid and investment come with "no-strings attached".

But Moffett believes the U.S. insistence on democracy and good governance, which U.S. officials say will be re-affirmed at the summit, reflects a real transformation underway in Africa.

"President (Obama) can actually say, with a straight face, that the trajectory across Africa … (is) towards more democracy, more adherence to rule of law, more transparency, more judicial independence, less corruption.

"The Chinese guys don't give that speech," Moffett said.

From Agence France-Presse 

African leaders head to Washington for a landmark US summit this week, with President Barack Obama hoping to boost trade, development and security ties amid growing competition from China on the continent.

China overtook the United States as Africa's largest trading partner five years ago, with Beijing's trade now worth more than $200 billion (150 billion euros) a year, double that of Washington.

But while the US is playing catch-up, experts say it is wrong to view the situation as a direct competition between the two powers, since China's investments potentially boost US trade and their companies are focused on different sectors.

"The Obama administration has come under increasing pressure from the commercial sector to prioritise Africa policy. This US-Africa summit is more a response to this than a direct beauty contest with China," said Alex Vines, from Britain's Chatham House think tank.

The International Monetary Fund says Africa is now growing faster than Asia.

"Africa now is a land of competition of Europe, America, China, and even some Arabian countries," Rene Kouassi, director of economic affairs at the African Union, told AFP.

The US has been keen to avoid any suggestion that the three-day summit opening Monday — dubbed the "largest single engagement" by any American president with Africa — is designed to challenge the role of other nations in the continent.

"We welcome the attention Africa is receiving from other countries like China, Brazil, India and Turkey," said Will Stevens, spokesman for the US State Department's Bureau of African Affairs.

More the merrier

Although 50 heads of state were due to take part in the summit, several, including Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma and Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, have already said they are not planning to go because of the ongoing Ebola epidemic in their countries.

The US, the world's largest economy, is only Africa's third-largest trade partner after the European Union — some of whose members have post-colonial ties with African nations — and China, which is hungry for the continent's natural resources.

"We believe the more the merrier. But we also think that African countries should make sure that their relationships benefit their people –- and that they add value, not extract it," Stevens added.

Redefining relationships with the continent will be key, analysts say.

Africa is home to seven of the world's fastest-growing economies. Many hope to alter an image of a war-ravaged continent where foreign relationships are based on aid alone.

"The focus is no longer on aid, on humanitarian assistance… it's long overdue, that we move this relationship to the economic sphere, where it can be almost a partnership," Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told AFP.

"Africa still offers the best returns to any investor."

James Shikwati, director of Kenya-based economic think tank the Inter Region Economic Network, argues Washington is trying to "reframe" engagement with Africa given the "new competitor China" which has been "very visible" with large-scale infrastructure projects.

"China's massive infrastructure projects kind of dwarf the American effort," said Christopher Wood, from the South African Institute of International Affairs.

"I think we are seeing increasingly an effort by the US to try and get back into that game, for example, attempts to develop energy capacity on the continent."

While past US engagement has focused on "talking about democracy and human rights," Shikwati said he expected Washington would now "temper that with some solid projects that a camera can capture… like some big dam that supplies power."

The African pie

Others argue it is wrong to exaggerate economic competition between Washington and Beijing.

"This oft-repeated and inaccurate platitude misrepresents both current geopolitical realities and commercial opportunities," said Dane Erickson, from the University of Colorado, writing in The American Interest magazine.

The two nations often focus on different economic sectors, and it is in fact EU nations that offer the larger challenge.

"A more sober analysis of two areas of focus for the US-Africa Leaders Summit — trade and investment, and security — shows just how much how US, Chinese, and African interests align in key policy areas," Erickson added.

Indeed, he argues China's role may actually boost trade for the US.

"Chinese infrastructure investments — on a continent in dire need of more roads, bridges, and ports to support growing economies and populations — can benefit Africans, Americans, and other foreign investors," Erickson added.

"It is becoming increasingly difficult for an international executive to do business in Africa today without driving on a Chinese-constructed road, meeting in a Chinese-built conference centre, or shipping materials on a Chinese-made railway."

For Africa, competition on the continent in the "quest to grab the African pie" offers opportunities as well as risks, argues Shikwati.

"Competition gives African countries the leverage to negotiate and get what they want," Shikwati said, while also recalling the warnings from history that foreigners can end up "cutting the pie for themselves." – AFP.