Biden pushes US as a crucial ally to African leaders

By AAMER MADHANI and COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is making his case to African leaders gathered in Washington that the United States can be a critical catalyst to their growing continent in the years ahead. But his push comes as the United States has fallen well behind China in investment in sub-Saharan Africa, which has become a key battleground in an increasingly fraught competition between the two major powers. Despite White House officials’ insistence that this week’s gathering is primarily a listening session by the U.S., Biden’s central foreign policy tenet looms over the summit: America is an in an era-defining battle to prove democracies can out-deliver autocracies.