After Russia, Turkey and China, it is the turn of the United States to resuscitate the USA-Africa Summit, the last edition of which dates back to 2014. Have these meetings become a way for the world powers to weave a link with the continent?
Last Friday, during a speech in Abuja, Nigeria, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the preparation of a high-level summit bringing together the American administration and African leaders. The US-Africa Leaders Summit, the first and only edition of which took place in 2014, took place during the last year of Barack Obama's presidency.
A high-level summit which serves, without saying so, to compete with other foreign powers which have made Africa, for some of them, their playground. France, which revised the format of its Africa-France summit by excluding heads of state from the program, but also from China, Turkey and Russia.
Antony Blinken announced the holding of the American summit on the eve of his arrival in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, which will host the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC) in the coming days. The next Russia-Africa summit is for the moment postponed. For its part, Turkey will organize the third Turkey-Africa partnership summit, from December 17.
What are these cooperation summits the name of? And what do African countries have to gain from these events?
The United States, too little, too late
For the world powers, bringing out the heavy artillery to organize these summits is a question of image. If the relations between African countries and their former colonies are starting to crack, it is a real opportunity for new partners. It is also, for the States of the continent, to put forward their assets to attract new investors. And the trend is “win-win”: emerging powers, like China, offer commercial partnerships without interfering in politics.
It is not a question of imposing Western culture on the continent, warns Antony Blinken. In Nigeria, "everywhere, people listen to afrobeats, they read Wole Soyinka and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, they watch Nollywood films, they encourage Nigerian athletes, they eat jollof rice," sums up the US secretary of state. And foreign powers have every interest in not trying to erase that.
Still, on the American side, investments in Africa are still timid. Notably last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa has indeed fallen by 16% in 2020, to 40 billion dollars.
At the start of the year, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari appealed for US military, economic and health aid. The American response therefore arrives nine months late, accompanied by an abstract "$ 2,1 billion development aid agreement that supports collaboration in health, education, agriculture and good governance" . But in this country of 207 million inhabitants - for 440 billion dollars of GDP - is not this agreement more symbolic than anything else?
The Nigerian case is a textbook case. This country already has a functional infrastructure, the second best internet penetration on the continent, etc. Moreover, democracy is firmly established there. It is now for the United States to try to sign other partnerships in other countries.
China, unbeatable in Africa?
Is the United States a credible rival to China in Africa? In the first nine months of this year, Chinese trade volume in Africa hit a record high of $ 185,2 billion, up 38,2% from 2020. China's direct investment in Africa in all sectors recorded an increase of $ 2,59 billion, an increase of 9,9%. China thus exceeds its own record for direct investment in Africa by 3%.
And the Middle Kingdom does not stop at simple commerce. Xi Jinping's country has succeeded in integrating highly coveted markets in Africa: infrastructure - roads, hospitals, schools -, new information technologies (NICT) through mobile telephony, satellite connection in landlocked countries, etc. Chinese influence is also evident in the textiles, hydrocarbons and energy sectors. A breakthrough that China sometimes owes a lot to its debt policy.
At FOCAC, Chinese entrepreneurs therefore arrive with a very positive result. And, above all, they show that Sino-African relations have only grown during the pandemic, where other powers are, half-heartedly, accused of having "let go" of Africa.
Realpolitics in Africa: Russia, France and Turkey
While the United States and China are engaged in this economic battle in Africa, the French, Turkish and Russian summits devoted to Africa are based much more on realpolitics. A formal reissue of the Cold War.
It has been years since France was kicked out of certain African countries, French-speaking in this case, by Russia and Turkey but also by African leaders themselves. And if Paris continues its conquest of natural resources, relying on its military presence in African countries, its two competitors have adopted different strategies.
For Russia, it is mainly about the empowerment of the armed forces of countries unloved by the West. And, for several years, Moscow has supported African "problem" countries up to the highest diplomatic levels. Moscow is today the first, if not the only gunsmith of Ethiopia, Algeria and the Central African Republic, and seems well on its way to conquer the Malian and Angolan markets, among others.
For Turkey, the watchwords are trade and diplomacy. Ankara has captured a large part of the French territory, and European in general, whether in North Africa or in the countries of the Gold Coast.
Thus, the cooperation summits organized by France, Russia or Turkey often turn into a communication war. But on the side of African countries, some find themselves torn between old sterile alliances and new alliances, even if it means exchanging one neocolonialist power for another.
Be that as it may, high-level meetings today remain an opportunity for African leaders to standardize their relations with world powers. International relations are becoming vital for improving a socio-economic situation which continues to deteriorate.