Obama to invite 47 leaders to US-Africa summit in August
Baku, January 22 (AZERTAC). President Barack Obama will invite 47 leaders to a landmark US-Africa summit in August, seeking to widen US trade, development and security ties with an increasingly dynamic continent to which he traces part of his ancestry.
Obama will send out invites to all African nations that are currently in good standing with the United States or are not suspended from the African Union -- meaning there will be no place for states like Egypt or Zimbabwe. Obama will hold the talks on August 5 and 6, seeking to cement progress from his trip to Africa last year.
A White House statement said the trip would "advance the administration's focus on trade and investment in Africa, and highlight America’s commitment to Africa’s security, its democratic development, and its people. "The idea for the summit, which takes place with Washington increasingly aware of China's attempt to enhance its own diplomatic profile in Africa, was first announced by Obama in a speech in Cape Town in June. Egypt, which has caused the Obama administration to thread a foreign policy needle with an erstwhile ally after a military takeover, is not eligible to attend as it is currently suspended from the African Union.
But Obama has spoken to Kenyatta on the telephone, and the Kenyan leader has enjoyed more interaction with the outside world since a massacre at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in September claimed by Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents.
The summit, together with Obama's trip to Africa last year, and a promised future visit before he leaves office, might go some way to assuaging disappointment that he did not pay the continent more attention in his first term. The president did visit Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania last year, unveiling a series of agricultural, power generation and development initiatives.
He also held a summit of young African leaders, designed to groom the next generation of the continent's politicians in 2010.
The president also paid a short visit to Ghana in 2009, which marked the only visit to sub-Saharan Africa of his first term.
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