PRETORIA — The
US is seeking a “true
partnership” with
Africa and not trying to “outdo” other world powers in vying for
influence on the continent, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on
Monday.
اضافة اعلان
Blinken arrived in South Africa for an official
visit on Sunday during a three-nation African trip which follows hot on the
heels of an extensive tour of the continent by
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Speaking in the South African capital Pretoria on
Monday, Blinken said the US did not see the region as the “latest playing field
in a competition between great powers”.
“That is fundamentally not how we see it. It’s not
how we will advance our engagement here,” Blinken told a press briefing,
speaking alongside his local counterpart Naledi Pandor.
“Our commitment to a stronger partnership with
Africa is not about trying to outdo anyone else.”
For his first stop, the US top diplomat chose
South Africa, a leader in the developing world which has remained neutral in the
Ukraine war.
Pretoria has refused to join Western calls to
condemn Moscow, which had opposed apartheid before the end of white-minority
rule in 1994.
His comments came ahead of a policy announcement on
the US government’s new Africa strategy, which Blinken is expected to lay out
in a speech at the University of Pretoria later on Monday.
“What we seek most of all is a true partnership
between the US and Africa. We don’t want an imbalanced or transactional
relationship,” Blinken said.
Vulnerable countries in Africa and elsewhere in the
world have been hard hit by the fallout from the
Ukraine war that has sent
prices of fuel and food soaring.
Powerhouse South Africa belongs to a group of
emerging economies called BRICS.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged
BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — to cooperate
in the face of “selfish actions” from the West.
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