US President Donald Trump is poised to host African leaders from across the continent by the end of the year.
This was announced today by the State Department’s top Africa official.
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Troy Fitrell, made the remarks at the inaugural summit of American Chambers of Commerce in West Africa.
Hosted at the US Embassy in Abidjan following this year’s Africa CEO Forum, the summit saw the launch of the US- Côte d’Ivoire Commercial Dialogue and the signing of several million-dollar worth of deals in energy and other sectors.
“It will absolutely [happen] this year, on the theme of trade and investment,” Fitrell, speaking in French, told reporters at a press conference following the summit.
“It won’t be a summit to talk solely about politics and war, and such. It will prioritise exchange between partners and relations between equals.”
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While details are still being ironed out over the next few weeks, Fitrell said the summit is expected to be held in late summer or early autumn (June to August), ideally in New York.
There is precedent for hosting African leaders in the US financial capital, where hotels are far more abundant than in Washington.
Former President Barack Obama hosted a US-Africa Business Forum in New York in 2016, as a commercial complement to the first leaders’ summit two years earlier in Washington.
For Trump, hosting such a summit could go a long way towards shedding his image as someone largely disinterested in a continent where China has been making inroads at the West’s expense for decades.
Trump did not host an African Leaders Summit during his first term or visit the continent.