Top US diplomat promotes American-built projects in Senegal

By MATTHEW LEE
AP Diplomatic Writer

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Senegal, where he’s wrapping up a weeklong, three-nation tour of Africa. On a trip overshadowed by crises elsewhere on the continent, Blinken is pushing American-built infrastructure projects, sustainable development, women’s empowerment and other human rights initiatives to bolster faltering democracies across Africa. In meetings with female entrepreneurs and executives from U.S.-based multinational companies, Blinken is extolling the benefits of boosting women’s roles in economies and of buying American. And he’s taken a jab at China, which is a chief U.S. competitor for lucrative business in Senegal and elsewhere in Africa. Blinken says America invests “without saddling the country with a debt that it cannot handle.”