CNN
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The White House is holding its “Leaders of Africa” summit this week. However, only five countries from 55 continents are eligible to participate.
Liberia said the president is one of five African heads of state invited by US President Donald Trump to attend the “high-level summit” in Washington, D.C., and intended to “deepen diplomatic relations, advance economic goals and strengthen security cooperation.”
Other invitees revealed by the President of Liberia include leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal.
However, according to Liberia, none of the biggest African companies were asked to attend, including South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia’s biggest economies. These countries are allied with BRICS, a group of emerging economies founded by Brazil, India, the enemy of America, Russia and China. BRICS members face the threat of being hit by new tariffs from Trump in order to support “anti-American” policies.
Although details of Trump’s African leadership summit have not been released by the White House, analysts say the selection of invitees remains a challenge, explaining the continent’s changing U.S. policy as “high stakes gambling.”
Christopher Afolk Isaiche, professor of African politics and international relations at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, describes Trump’s handpicked guests for his US summit as “low fruits” in his quest to counter the Chinese and Russian influences in Africa.
“On the other hand, Trump is eager to have some deals to show his base that he is getting US results. But some of these are also focused on countering China’s influence in Africa and making Russian activities malignant that undermine our profits on the continent,” he told CNN.
“The majority of African regions are aiming to be in BRICS as key members or participate as key partners,” Isike said, adding, “These five countries (attending the US Summit) are not falling into that category and are fruits with such a low attitude.”
China is Africa’s largest bilateral trading partner, but ally Russia has expanded its footprint on the continent and emerged as a major supplier of military hardware.
This is not the first time Trump has hosted a small group of African leaders in the United States. This deviates from the approach of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who held a more fulfilling gathering of African government chiefs while in the White House.
During his first term of office, considered “boring bored towards Africa,” Trump held a “working lunch” with nine African heads of state in 2017.
“There is an incredible business potential in Africa,” Trump said at a conference that includes leaders from Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa.
Now, in his second term, Trump is focusing on the wealth of African minerals, and the United States is eager to challenge China’s access to key minerals in the region. However, he advocates a trading policy that exchanges charities for strategic US investments.
When a Trump-brokered peace agreement was signed last month by Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it has large mineral deposits that are important for the production of electronic devices, Trump told reporters that the United States can “get many mineral rights from the Congo.”
The signed peace agreement does not specifically confiscate U.S. mineral rights, but the document includes a framework for “a framework for expanding foreign trade and investments derived from the regional key mineral supply chains,” particularly “connecting the two countries in partnerships between the US government and US investors, where necessary.”
On July 1, Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the end of the US Organization for International Development (USAID), delivering US humanitarian aid overseas, saying that “the countries that benefit most from our generosity are usually unable to travel,” and that “future US aid and investment must “follow America’s number one foreign policy.”
The Trump administration has previously cancelled more than 80% of USAID’s programs, imposing “mutual” tariffs on several countries, including many in Africa, whom Trump said had trade obstacles with the United States. South Africa has described the “mutual” tariffs that are expected to take effect on August 1, saying they are not based on “an accurate representation of available trade data.”
Trump has also banned travel in 12 countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, citing security risks amid the aggressive tightening of immigration by his administration. An expanded expansion of travel restrictions would halt travel to the US due to the West African belt if implemented.
Meanwhile, China has eased the impact of US tariffs on Africa, and last month announced that almost all imports of African partners would be suspended.
Small economies are rich in mineral resources such as oil and gas, gold, iron ore and rare earth elements in Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Liberia. West and Central African countries are also the general starting points for immigration to the United States.
Debate at the Trump-remaining summit will expand beyond commerce, according to Ousmane Sene, who heads the Senegal-based research institute, West African Studies Centre (WARC).
“There may be other interests. As with the trends and “security” of immigration from West Africa to Nicaragua and the US, “just as five (5) countries are open in the Atlantic,” Sene told CNN.
Last year, the New York Times reported that the US is growing the number of African immigrants at its southern border, citing government data. The number has increased from 13,000 in 2022 to 58,462. The Mauritania and Senegal nationals were at the top of the list.
For Mama Dutior, a Dakar-based journalist and political analyst who covered the first US and African leadership summit hosted by Obama in 2014, the five African countries’ leadership leaders must be “as smart as Donald Trump” when the story begins at the White House.
“Trump is a businessman, so only American interests are interested in him,” Tior said. “USAID, a key partner in a country like Senegal, no longer exists. It’s up to them to talk to Trump and we can see what new cooperation they can propose.”
In Isike’s view, “The conference is set to launch a new US diplomatic model, which is traded with US economic reform (and) trade achievements.”
Nevertheless, five African countries can “expect to leverage private sector partnerships, investment, infrastructure development and security cooperation with the US,” he said.
These countries are not new to high-stakes relationships with global forces. They were each courted by China, and they increased the amount of trade between them and boosted the funded infrastructure in Gabon and Senegal.
When Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sisoko Embaro met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing in September, the former had kind words to his host country.
“For Africa,” Embaro said, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry, “China represents the future and is a brother.”
“Guinea-Bissau is willing to become a trusted friend and partner in China,” he added.
Last month Senegale Prime Minister Osmane Songko also praised China and thanked him for awarding “preparation scholarships” to athletes and coaches from his country ahead of next summer’s Youth Olympics.
In the same statement, Sonko expressed her dissatisfaction with the US decision to deny visas to “several members of Senegale’s national women’s basketball team,” the leading African women’s basketball squad.
According to Isaac, Trump made one thing clear at the broader African leadership summit, which is being discussed by the White House later this year. “From traditional aid to strategic commerce-led engagement”
However, this shift is “high stakes gambling that not only resets influence in Africa through investment, but also aligns with America’s goal of fighting China and fostering economically independent African partners.”
“The way Africa can become independent is not because he (Trump) loves Africa, but because he doesn’t have patience in a country that only wants handouts from the US.
