As President Joe Biden welcomed President William Ruto for a state visit on Thursday, the White House announced that the United States will name Kenya as its first significant non-NATO ally in sub-Saharan Africa. Just as American soldiers are getting ready to leave Niger, this momentous strategic shift indicates that U.S. security cooperation will now focus on East Africa, creating a void that Russian forces have started to fill.
With the exception of the mutual defense pact that keeps NATO cohesive, the designation grants non-members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization access to the military and financial benefits enjoyed by members of the alliance. Reporters were informed late on Wednesday by a senior administration official that Biden will notify Congress of the designation, which takes 30 days to become effective.
According to the source, the action is intended to “acknowledge and elevate the fact that Kenya is already one of our global partners.”
Ruto and Biden are utilizing their all-day talks to finalize Kenya’s plan to dispatch 1,000 security guards to the unstable and disorderly Caribbean nation of Haiti in the interim.
The United States has committed $300 million to help the program; nevertheless, it confronts significant political and legal obstacles in Kenya. The operation was also postponed when, in March, Ariel Henry, the leader of Haiti, visited Kenya and was overtaken by armed gangs. Henry left his position in April and hasn’t come back to the island.
The person stated that Ruto will discuss the mission with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, but no progress was guaranteed.
A number of security-related agreements were also unveiled by the White House on Thursday. These agreements include increased information sharing in counterterrorism efforts, refugee management support, training opportunities and military drills, U.S. investments in Kenya’s security sector, and, above all, the provision of 16 helicopters and 150 armored vehicles.
Additionally, Washington committed millions of dollars to certain initiatives that the United States views as essential to growth.
These cover topics like trade, technology, democracy, health, education, the arts and culture, climate management, and, above all, the one thing Ruto stated would be his top focus during his four days in the US: working to restructure the crippling debt that African countries owe China, the world’s largest creditor.
However, the roads, bridges, and train projects that African leaders have long claimed they need to keep up with their rapidly expanding populations were not included in the extensive list of American pledges. For such, they look to China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative, the world’s largest global initiative valued at $1 trillion, with the African continent as its primary beneficiary.
According to commentators, this reflects Africa’s new posture as its nascent democracies develop, less than a century after being freed from colonial rule: they want to be in the middle of the competition among the world’s superpowers.
Cameron Hudson is a senior scholar in the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Africa Program. “I think many U.S. officials see this very much as a zero-sum game in this kind of great power competition to gain influence,” Hudson said. African nations hold a different perspective. They don’t see any contradiction in that strategy; rather, they recognize the advantages of working together with Washington on development, Russia on security, and China on trade.”
“And I think unless and until Washington becomes much more comfortable with seeing their privileged relationships become partnerized with other countries, I think it’s going to be very difficult for Washington to really chart a course forward with many of these countries,” he said.
First lady Jill Biden, speaking ahead of her sixth state dinner, mentioned a glass-ceilinged pavilion set under the stars, a gospel choir, shag carpets, and “the glow of candles in a space saturated with warm pinks and reds.” This is the first state visit to the White House by an African leader in nearly 16 years.
Executive chef of the White House Cristeta Comerford described a cuisine that included butter-poached lobster, fresh treasures evoking American summer, and chilled green tomato soup flavored with sweet onions and sprinkled with white balsamic vinegar and superb Californian olive oil. She spoke extensively about the bed of kale, the roasted corn, the corn puree, the roasted turnips, the sweet potatoes, and the squash, but she only mentioned one thing that is thought to be the signature of a delicious Kenyan feast:
She went on to say that they are specifically short ribs that have been marinated and smoked and are sitting over produce worth a farmers market.
However, it was the nameless administration official who teased the one and only American president of Kenyan descent, the star who may steal the show on this brilliant night.
The official paused when asked if former President Barack Obama, who was born to an American mother and a Kenyan father, would attend the opulent dinner.
The official finally said, “I’ll go to a quote from another former president, President Trump.” “We’ll see what happens,” was said after that.
