During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last month, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) asked experts what the United States' regional strategy in East Africa should look like.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Senator Corden. Thank you for being here. I think we all agree that Africa is a
00:07important place and that we are not doing everything that we should do or
00:15might do in order to influence the direction of that of that continent. I do
00:21take exception to some of my colleagues statements about the the previous let's
00:28say the status quo ante with a lot of money being spent in disjointed wasteful
00:35and unfocused ways by the federal government and obviously changing that
00:40is disruptive and there's a lot of programs that I think particularly PEPFAR
00:45which have been particularly important in Africa in terms of our soft power and
00:50saving lives and so can I continue obviously to support that but it seems
00:58to me we lack a coherent strategy and I'm not sure that I know the
01:03administration is working on some targeted projects for example the DRC on
01:09the critical minerals front and others but I my visit to Kenya Angola and the DRC
01:20last August just I was struck just by not only the magnitude of the challenge but
01:26how how we seem to black any particular strategy to deal with making it any
01:32different than it is now so maybe both of you if I take take it in turn please what
01:39would be a successful region regional strategy in East Africa look like for the
01:45United States that doesn't necessarily have to all emanate from the White House
01:48Congress can begin that conversation what would that look like yeah thank you
02:00senator I think it's it's important first to ensure that any regional
02:06strategies integrated into a broader continental strategy and then and then
02:11global strategy but as far as the region specifically the u.s. needs to
02:17determine exactly what its interests are what its goals are and how I can get
02:22there that that all seems obvious it seems pretty fundamental yeah but one of
02:25the things where our goal is be to stop the Russians and the Chinese from
02:31essentially preempting us and pushing us out in terms of our influence but go
02:37ahead absolutely so I reference the potential Russian base really in in Port
02:43Sudan that would be massively problematic we already have the the Chinese base in
02:47Djibouti as as we've discussed so I think again I'm a big believer in
02:53commercial engagement I think the US government and the US Congress can help
02:58streamline the work of organizations like like the DFC and Ex-Im Bank make them
03:04more fit for purpose they're too slow they're too bureaucratic and then make
03:10that really a this commercial engagements the centerpiece of the value
03:16proposition that the United States brings to these countries I also think it
03:19should determine which countries it can actually achieve things with there are
03:25just some country or some governments on the continent that are so hostile and so
03:30frankly inept that it's very hard to determine how the US could ever actually
03:35achieve much of anything with them so I would you know some specific areas you
03:43could talk about critical minerals EAC does have such things I know that
03:48critical minerals is already a cliche to talk about but it is a reality for the
03:52United States and Africa is not just a cliche yeah it's it's a real thing there's a
03:57reason everybody talks about it so it'll have Africa will have to be part of the
04:00solution for the United States the US needs to figure out how to support its
04:04companies it should work with the companies of allied countries because we
04:08have very few mining companies anymore in this country so but the Australians the
04:13Canadians they have huge mining companies and and look for possibilities
04:18there they should also work closely with with other allied countries on
04:22financing arrangements and take a much more systematic and harmonized
04:26approach with allies to these regions to focus on the core interests of the
04:32United States which again would be security and then some of these economic
04:36issues ambassador thank you and I think you know particularly for the horn it is
04:44really important to integrate what we're trying to accomplish in Africa with a
04:49strategy that looks at the other side of the Red Sea so this is broadly what we
04:55need to do is stop treating Africa like an extra credit project in foreign policy
04:59and make it part of the core curriculum and integrate it into the way we think
05:03about achieving US interests globally and and I think that you know more
05:09engagement as Senator Kuhn said a focus on peace and conflict prevention
05:14because the conflicts in Africa provide opportunities particularly to Russia and
05:19and to various criminal networks terrorist and otherwise that this is not in our
05:25interest commercial deals yes but making sure the deals don't just benefit a set of
05:30elites at the top but our deals that we can talk about benefiting both sides of the
05:39Atlantic in a way that addresses some of these job creation issues I see my time is up