Donald Trump and five West African Countries in Washington,
Abubakar Hashim/ Monrovia
The meeting between President Donald Trump and the five West African countries of Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Guinea Bissau and Mauritania, has come and gone. All the West African Presidents have returned home.
Last evening, Liberia’s President Joseph Boakai returned home, with a long retinue of convoys from the Robert field airport.
The Trump meeting in Washington was aimed at a paradigm shift in US foreign policy to the region, away from AGOA ( Africa Growth Opportunity Act), under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, to a new transactional policy.
The meeting was held for three mutually strategic reasons:
1. All 5 West African countries are rich in minerals that the US desperately needs. All the countries desperately need assistance from the US.
Gabon, rich in manganese, gold, oil and gas, has one-quarter of the world’s manganese and uranium, used for manufacturing of aircraft, auto batteries and stainless steel. Gabon exports to China 22% of manganese and oil. The US is the largest consumer of these resources.
2. The US is also in desperate need of a military base in Gulf of Guinea, to stem maritime terrorism and illegal migration. Here, Mauritania and Senegal, come in handy to the US. All the invited countries, including Liberia, are departure points for illegal migration.
3. Mauritania’s President, and current AU Chairman, Mohamed Ould Ghazouami, was the first to speak at the Trump meeting few days ago. Hear him: “ In the shortest time since you returned to the Oval Office in your 2nd term, you’ve resolved a long standing problem of peace deal between DR Congo and Rwanda”. Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tar, is the current AfDB President. The US is the majority shareholder, with a 15.9% stakes. Trump intends to reduce the stakes and later pull out of AfDB. Mauritanian President canvasses for support to his brother who now heads the AfDB.
Liberia’s President Boakai calls for US support to the region’s peace and political stability, particularly to the ECOWAS Stabilisation Force, headquartered in Sierra Leone.
Now the meeting is over. Other African countries, particularly the region’s powerhouses like Nigeria,South Africa, that recently participated at BRICS summit in Brazil, remained unperturbed of not being invited.
Nigeria, through Foreign Minster, Yusuf Tuggar, stated a few days ago that Nigeria cannot take Venezuelan or any third party prisoners into Nigeria from the US.
Nigeria, again, issued a statement on US Non immigrant visa, that Nigeria has not placed any restrictions on US citizens five- year visas and compelled US to do the same.
*Abubakar Hashim is our West Coast Bureau Chief, currently writing from Liberia
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