LOBITO, Angola (AP) — President Joe Biden pledged another $600 million Wednesday for an ambitious multi-country rail project in Africa as one of the final foreign policy moves of his administration, and told African leaders the resource-rich continent of more than 1.4 billion people had been “left behind for much too long.”
“But not anymore,” Biden added. “Africa is the future.”
Biden used the third and final day of a visit to Angola — his long-awaited first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president — to travel to the coastal city of Lobito and tour an Atlantic port terminal that’s part of the Lobito Corridor railway redevelopment.
Biden described it as the largest U.S. investment in a train project outside America. The U.S. and allies are investing heavily in the project that will refurbish nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of train lines connecting to the mineral-rich areas of Congo and Zambia in central Africa.
The corridor, which likely will take years to complete, gives the U.S. better access to cobalt, copper and other critical minerals in Congo and Zambia that are used in batteries for electric vehicles, electronic devices and clean energy technologies that Biden said would power the future.