By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit:Olivier Douliery.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in South Africa on Sunday to launch the US Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa.
On Monday, he is expected to lead a US delegation in a strategic dialogue in Pretoria to “reinforce and deepen its commitment” to bilateral cooperation on global issues, as well as a wide range of shared priorities such as climate, health, infrastructure, trade and investment.
On Tuesday, he is scheduled to join in the commemoration of National Women’s Day.
It is Blinken’s first visit to the country.
However this is Blinken’s second trip to Africa; he visited Nigeria, Senegal and Kenya last November. The purpose of each national visit varies according to local and regional circumstances.
In South Africa he has two primary objectives, according to assistant secretary Molly Phee. One is to engage in a high-level “strategic dialogue” with his counterpart, international relations minister Naledi Pandor.
South Africa has a long, complex, deep and vital history of relations with the US and its people. A series of dialogues at this level started in 2010, during the administrations of presidents Barack Obama and Jacob Zuma. They were suspended during the Donald Trump administration.
The Blinken-Pandor dialogue will include topics that have been vital to both nations since before the series began in 2010. Today, they are even more important: trade and investment, public health, agriculture, education, climate, water, science and technology, among others.
More Americans than ever visit South Africa. The US recently surpassed the UK and Germany as the source of South Africa’s largest overseas tourism numbers.
Reaffirming priorities now is important, considering domestic and international developments since the last high-level dialogue in 2015.
Relations between the US and South Africa were of little interest to Trump. He immediately cancelled Obama’s large financial commitment to the Green Climate Fund. The fund was designed to assist African and other nations seriously affected by climate change. This caused consternation in South Africa.
President Joe Biden has reversed many of Trump’s actions. But such shifts have raised questions regarding America’s reliability.