美国国务院
发言人办公室
即时发布
2022年8月8日
南非比勒陀利亚
未来非洲
安东尼·布林肯国务卿发表讲话
至关重要的伙伴以及共同的重点要务：拜登政府对撒哈拉以南非洲地区的战略
 
布林肯国务卿：非常感谢你们。各位下午好。来到这里太好了，来到这所杰出的大学太好了。玛哈拉贾（Maharaj）教授以及比勒陀利亚大学（University of Pretoria）的全体负责人，感谢你们今天在这个壮丽的校园里接待我们。
部长女士、我的朋友娜莱迪（Naledi），感谢你的溢美之辞。还要为我们一直在构筑的伙伴关系对你表示特别感谢，不仅是在我们两国之间，而且实际上是在我们个人之间，对此我极为珍视。而且我要为此对你表示感谢。
请允许我首先用一点时间也对另一个人表示欢迎，我们的驻南非候任大使鲁本·布里吉蒂（Ruben Brigety），他将于本周向拉马福萨总统（President Ramaphosa）递交国书。鲁本，你在哪儿？（掌声）
鲁本曾在我们的政府中担任美国驻非洲联盟大使等高级别职务，以及多所大学的校长和院长。我想象不到还有谁能更好地管理我们两国之间的关系。
对我来说，简而言之，回到南非真是太好了。我实际上过去曾有幸数次来访，包括陪同克林顿总统、奥巴马总统以及时任副总统拜登。那些访问所产生的印象已在我的记忆里留下了深深的烙印。
看到克林顿总统成为第一位对贵国议会发表讲话的美国总统，陪同他的是一个我们的国会黑人核心小组（Congressional Black Caucus）代表团，其中很多人是反种族隔离运动的坚定支持者，而且代表着增进了我们两国间的纽带的广大非洲海外社群的一部分。
看到我们的第一位黑人总统，他的父亲是肯尼亚人，母亲是美国人，站在罗本岛（Robben Island）上关押过南非的首位黑人总统的两米见方的牢房中。
亦或是听到美国男足在非洲首次举办的世界杯赛上比赛时吹响的南非呜呜号（vuvuzelas）。这样的号声过耳难忘，早早就被淘汰仍然令人痛心。（笑声）但希望之泉永不尽。
今天，正如部长所言，我有幸阐明我国政府对撒哈拉以南非洲地区与美国之间的伙伴关系的新战略。这项战略建立在我国在该地区的参与的广泛愿景之上，我曾有机会于去年11月在尼日利亚分享这一愿景。
在未来非洲（Future Africa）的校园这里阐明这项战略非常恰当，这个机构的使命是将不同学科、背景和国籍的人汇集在一起，以着手应对我们这个时代最棘手的一些挑战。
我们的未来取决于年轻人，就像来这里学习的学者和从业人员。而且，正如你们已经听到的，到2050年，我们所共有的这个星球上的每四个人中就将有一个人是非洲人。他们不仅将塑造这个大洲的命运，而且将塑造全世界的命运。
这是恰当之所的另一个原因是，南非争取自由的斗争以及那些领导这一斗争的人士的勇气和牺牲，继续激励着全世界人民。我们知道在贵国，正如在我们自己的国家，走向自由的漫长征途还没有结束。而你们已取得的卓越进步就环绕在我们周围。
1956年，156名活动人士因集会支持《自由宪章》（Freedom Charter）而遭到抓捕，这部宪章充满勇气地宣告南非属于南非人民。当叛国罪审判（Treason Trial）在比勒陀利亚这里开始时，受到指控的人士包括宪章的起草者之一Z·K·马修斯（Z.K. Matthews）教授和他的儿子乔·马修斯（Joe Matthews）——一位崭露头角的非国大（ANC）活动家，他们是今天担任南非国际关系与合作部长（Minister of International Relations and Cooperation）部的娜莱迪·潘多尔（Naledi Pandor）博士的祖父和父亲。（掌声）
而且也许对于在座的听众同样重要的是，部长的博士头衔正是在比勒陀利亚大学这里获得的。
我们也从你们的南非同胞的各项成就中看到了这种进步——南非国家女子足球队（Banyana Banyana）和南非国家男子橄榄球队（Springboks）最近的胜利。（掌声）马卡贝（Makeba）和马斯盖拉（Masekela）持久的音乐影响力，以及Amapiano和像——（掌声）——就是——像刚刚斩获格莱美奖的黑咖啡（Black Coffee）这样的音乐人的新的影响力。
在南非这里阐明我们的战略非常恰当的最后一个原因是，我们的国家和人民之间的纽带极其深厚，以及我们作为一贯以多元化为最强实力的生机勃勃的民主国家的所有共同之处。
我们的战略植根于对于撒哈拉以南的非洲地区是一支重大的地缘政治力量的认识，这支力量打造了我们的过去、正在打造我们的现在并将打造我们的未来。
这项战略体现了该地区的复杂性——其多样性及其威力和影响力——并着重于我们将与非洲国家和人民共同做些什么，而不是为非洲国家和人民做些什么。
简而言之，美国和非洲国家如果不作为平等的合作伙伴共同努力，就无法完成我们的任何一项共同的重点要务，不论是从疫情中复原、创造基础广泛的经济机会、应对气候危机、扩大能源获取渠道、振兴民主制度还是增强自由和开放的国际秩序。
因此，今天我想着重于四项重点要务，我们相信我们必须共同应对这些处于美国对撒哈拉以南非洲地区的战略核心的要务。
首先，我们将提倡开放，我们所指的是个人、社区和国家选择他们自己的道路并塑造我们生活于其中的这个世界的能力。
当刚刚获得独立的非洲国家的领导人于1963年汇聚一堂成立非洲统一组织（Organization of African Unity）及非洲联盟的前身时，他们写下的宪章的第一句话是：“坚信掌握自己的命运是全体人民不可剥夺的权利。”
这是命运曾由殖民势力所决定的历代非洲人民的斗争所催生的信念。这项不可剥夺的权利取决于一个规则和原则的体制，这是非洲人民几十年来通过他们在联合国和非洲联盟等机制中的领导作用帮助打造的。
然而，非洲国家往往被作为其他国家的进步的工具，而不是他们自己的篇章的谱写者。他们一次又一次地被告知在大国竞赛中选择阵营，而这似乎与他们人民的日常艰辛相去甚远。
美国将不会对非洲的选择发号施令。而且任何人都不应当发号施令。做出这些选择的权利属于非洲人民，而且只属于非洲人民。
与此同时，美国和全世界将期待非洲国家捍卫他们做出了如此重大的贡献来塑造的国际体制的规则。这些规则包括每个国家都享有其独立、主权和领土完整得到尊重的权利，这项原则目前在乌克兰正受到威胁。
我们相信所有国家都应当能够为一国有权不让自己的边界以武力被重新划定挺身而出，因为我们如果听任这一原则在一个地方遭到违背，就是使其在所有地方都遭到削弱。
开放还意味着为创意、信息和投资的自由流动开辟通道，而这在21世纪必须要有数字联通。因此，美国正在同非洲政府、商企和创业者结成伙伴，建设并调整基础设施，使其具备这种连通性——一个开放、可靠、可互操作、安全的因特网；数据中心；云计算。
这正是在三月份所实现的，当时莫桑比克成为第一个为SpaceX 的星链（Starlink）技术发放许可证的非洲国家。它利用卫星提供因特网服务，而且将帮助该国整个农村地区的居民扩大上网并降低费用。
在像莫桑比克这样的国家，因特网服务不稳定的原因之一是供应商要依赖几百公里甚至几千公里以外的数据中心。我们正在同非洲国家和商企共同努力来改变现状。
美国发展金融公司（U.S. Development Finance Corporation）正在投入3亿美元融资，用于在包括南非在内的整个地区发展、构建及运营数据中心。
我们最近授予了一项6亿美元的合同，修建一条总长度超过17000公里的海底电信电缆——从东南亚贯穿中东和非洲之角直到欧洲——为几大洲的人民提供高速、可靠、安全的联通。
这一基础设施的构建方式的回响将持续几十年。归根结底，我们已经看到当国际基础设施协议是腐败的、胁迫性的，当它们建造不良或损毁环境，当它们输入或虐待劳工，或给有关国家造成极其沉重的债务负担时的种种后果。
这正是各国必须能够做出选择，并能够基于地方社区的建议以透明的方式进行权衡，而不受到压力或胁迫的重要意义所在。
非洲国家自获得独立以来，一直都认识到各国走自己的道路的权利与确保公民个人也能这样做的权利密不可分。
由此我要谈谈我们的第二项重点：同非洲合作伙伴共同实现民主的承诺。
非洲各地的绝大多数人民在所有政府形式中最倾向于民主。反对以专制形式取代民主的比例更高。根据设在非洲的民调组织“非洲晴雨表”（Afrobarometer）的统计，超过70%的人拒绝接受军事统治；超过80%的人拒绝接受独裁统治。
非洲公民希望民主——这很清楚。问题——问题在于非洲政府能否通过以切实方式改善其公民的生活来让民主造福于民。这个挑战并不是非洲独有的。全世界各地的民主体，包括美国在内，都面临着这一挑战。而且保持同样的方式方法并不能解决这个问题。
因此，我们将采取不同的做法。 我们不会把民主作为非洲存在问题而美国有解决方案的领域来对待。 我们认识到，民主政体面临着共同挑战，我们需要作为平等伙伴，与其他政府、民间社会和公民一起解决这些问题。
这就是去年12月拜登总统主持、有100个国家踊跃参加的民主峰会的精神。 它将推动美国自2014年以来首次将于今年12月主办的非洲领导人峰会（African Leaders Summit） ——为解决共同的优先要务增强势头提供机会。
我们将与合作伙伴合作，解决21世纪对民主的威胁，如虚假信息、数字监控以及将腐败武器化。 我们将推出一个新的良好治理举措 —— 《全球脆弱性法案》（Global Fragility Act）；该法案将进行为期十年的投资，在易于滋生冲突的地方促进更和平、更包容、更有韧性的社会，包括我们今天谈到的莫桑比克以及贝宁、科特迪瓦、加纳、几内亚、多哥等西非沿海国家。
每到一处，我们会首先询问当地合作伙伴，美国的帮助能够在哪些方面发挥最大作用。 我们正借鉴过去几十年来在预防冲突方面所取得的经验教训，例如发展社区领袖、政府官员和安全部队之间的关系 —— 这对于在紧张局势爆发为暴力之前予以化解至关重要 ——以及建设对气候变化造成的诸如更频繁、更严重的干旱等破坏稳定的种种影响的恢复能力。
由于美国国会两党的支持，这项倡议每年可望获得2亿美元的资金，为期10年。 这让我们能够放眼未来，而不是只看到权宜之计。
我们将重点放在关注民主与安全之间的联系。 历史表明，强大的民主国家往往更稳定，较不易发生冲突，而薄弱的民主国家所固有的不良治理、排他性和腐败性使其更易于受到极端主义运动以及外国干涉的影响。 这包括克里姆林宫支持的瓦格纳集团（Wagner Group），正如我们在马里和中非共和国所看到的，该集团利用局势不稳来掠夺资源，实施暴行而不受惩罚。
美国认识到，非洲国家面临着真正的安全问题，无数社区受到恐怖主义和暴力这双重祸患的困扰。 但是，解决这些问题的答案不是瓦格纳，也不是任何其他雇佣军团伙。解决问题的答案是努力建立更有效、更负责任的非洲安全部队，尊重人民的权利，解决往往驱使人们加入犯罪或极端主义团体的边缘化问题。 解决问题的答案是通过持续的外交努力—— 越来越多地由非洲领导人、区域组织和公民主导的外交努力 —— 来结束暴力并开辟和平之路 。
正如我们通过参与乍得、埃塞俄比亚、苏丹、刚果民主共和国东部地区等地的工作所证明的那样，非洲国家可以信赖美国来支持这些努力。这是我本周访问所关注的一个重点。
最后，解决问题的答案是通过自由和公平的选举实现权力的和平交接。 非洲领导人正越来越多地强调和平过渡对区域安全和繁荣的重要意义。 这包括西非经共体（ECOWAS）在内。该组织正在进行辩论，决定其15个成员国是否应该通过一项禁令，禁止总统谋求第三个任期。 加纳和尼日利亚两国总统是这一禁令最直言不讳的支持者，这两位总统都在第二个任期内。
明天，肯尼亚人民将选出一位新领导人，随后安哥拉人民将在本月晚些时候进行选举。 2023年，刚果民主共和国、尼日利亚和塞内加尔的人民都将参加投票。 每一次选举都是非洲公民和国家重申领导人对其人民负责以及在该地区和世界各地加强民主的机会。
第三，我们将共同努力从新冠疫情造成的破坏中恢复过来，并为创造改善人民生活的广泛、可持续的经济机会奠定基础。
我们知道新冠疫情给非洲带来了毁灭性的打击 —— 生命的丧失以及生计的破坏。 超过5500万非洲人因疫情而陷入贫困，使几十年来得之不易的进步受挫。 俄罗斯对乌克兰的无端战争加深了这种经济痛楚。
甚至在普京总统发动全面入侵之前，全世界就有1.93亿人需要人道主义粮食援助。 世界银行认为，俄罗斯的入侵可能使这一前所未有的数字再增加4000万人，而新增的大多数人生活在非洲。
在这场前所未有的危机中，美国为非洲国家提供了支持，因为这是合作伙伴应当为彼此所做的事情，也因为帮助非洲人民迅速启动一个广泛的复苏计划，建立抵御未来冲击的恢复能力对我们的共同繁荣至关重要。
因此，让我简要地分享一下我们是如何做的。 我们号召其他国家和国际机构加大力度，应对关键挑战，如债务减免。 我们与南非和20国集团的其他成员一起，帮助制定了一个债务减免的共同框架（Common Framework for Debt Relief），首次将中国和其他债权国纳入其中。 对赞比亚而言，这一集体承诺有望在国际货币基金组织的一项计划中解锁14 亿美元，该计划旨在帮助该国重回稳定的经济道路，为赞比亚人民促进更具韧性和包容性的增长。
我们还支持拯救生命的努力。 自今年年初以来，美国已经向非洲提供了超过66亿美元的人道主义和粮食援助。
几个月前，我于五月份在联合国召集了一次全球粮食安全部长级会议，号召捐助国填补一些紧迫的资金缺口，并让受影响的国家指明其所需支持的领域。 非洲有关官员明确表示，除了紧急救援，他们真正需要的是对农业体系的韧性、创新和自给自足方面更多的投资。 我们正在对这些要求作出回应。
我们的“未来粮食保障”（Feed the Future）项目将在五年内向20个伙伴国家投资110亿美元，其中16个在非洲。我们与阿拉伯联合酋长国共同发起的一项新举措正在有力推动气候智能型农业的投资和创新。
除农业之外，美国还与非洲伙伴在一系列领域合作，推动创新和增长。同时，我们正在帮助扩展一批由非洲主导的举措，例如非洲联盟的《2063年议程》和非洲大陆自由贸易区，该贸易区全面建成后将成为世界第五大经济集团。
再看一下基础设施。在最近举行的七国集团会议上，拜登总统牵头启动了全球基础设施和投资伙伴关系，该伙伴关系将在未来五年内在全球动员6,000亿美元用于具体项目。美国承诺为这项工作筹集2,000亿美元，我们已经在实施专注于卫生、数字基础设施、妇女和女童赋权、能源和气候的项目。
还有青年一代。昨天，我会见了“曼德拉华盛顿奖学金”的校友们。自奥巴马总统八年前启动该计划以来，涵盖撒哈拉以南所有非洲国家的5,000多名新一代领导人已经前来美国接受学术和领导力培训，不仅培养技能，同样重要的是，他们将建立持续一生的人际关系。为年轻的非洲领导人提供工具、资源和虚拟社区的更广泛的非洲青年领袖计划（Young African Leaders Initiative, YALI）网络现在拥有超过70万名成员。
我们在卫生领域的工作同样可圈可点。2003年，乔治·W·布什总统创建了总统防治艾滋病紧急救援计划（President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief，PEPFAR），为HIV预防、检测、治疗和护理做出了划时代的投资。我认为，这是我有生之年美国实施的最伟大举措之一。从那时起，我们已经在这方面投入了超过1,000亿美元，几乎所有资金都用于我们与撒哈拉以南的非洲合作伙伴共同从事的项目。据估计，我们共同挽救了大约2,100万人的生命，还有千百万人免于感染，其中包括550万出生时免于感染艾滋病毒的婴儿。
大家想一想，这些都是天文数字。在谈论数字时，有时我们无法真正理解它们的全部含义。每一个数字的基本单位都代表着一个人的生活、命运和故事。多亏了这项令人难以置信的工作，这些故事才得以延续，而故事中的人物将为我们共享的世界做出巨大的贡献。
今天，PEPFAR支持70,000家诊所、3,000个实验室、300,000名卫生工作者和无数的梦想大使（DREAMS ambassador），他们帮助保护青春期少女和年轻女性免受HIV感染，据我了解，也包括今天与我们一起参加活动的一些人。
这些努力正在为千百万非洲人的生活带来持久的变化。我们在新冠病毒疫情期间就见证了这种变化。除了向非洲国家免费提供超过1.7亿剂安全、有效的新冠病毒疫苗之外，我们在过去数十年中共同建立的卫生系统也发挥了作用，拯救了无数人的生命。我们共同建立的诊所为最严重的感染者提供服务，我们帮助培训的社区卫生工作者挨家挨户为居民注射疫苗，我们共同创建的研究合作伙伴关系在新病毒变体识别和治疗方法方面取得了突破性进展。
与此同时，我们与非洲疾病预防控制中心等国家和地区级卫生机构的合作伙伴关系也有助于发现和应对新疫情，例如我们最近与加纳合作遏制该国首例马尔堡病病例。
在新冠病毒疫情暴露出差距的地方，我们正在努力共同解决这些问题。
今年2月，我召集了来自40个国家的外交部长——包括潘多尔部长——以及非洲联盟等多边机构举行会议。我们制定了一项全球行动计划，确定了关键优先要务（例如确保更公平地分配疫苗），并设定了具体目标。然后，我们在各国之间分摊责任，利用我们的互补优势去实现这些目标。我们定期会晤，以确保随时跟踪进展。
我们还与南非、印度尼西亚和其他20国集团成员一起在世界银行和世界卫生组织设立了一个历史性的新基金，用于大规模流行病的预防、准备和应对。这对于提供可持续支持以加强有需要的国家和地区的卫生安全并打破危机和忽视的循环至关重要。我们以往的做法是：发生重大危机时，我们积极动员，奋起应对；危机结束时，我们又一切照常。形势不允许我们重复这种模式，我们也不会再这样做。
非洲国家希望在疫苗方面自给自足，我们听到了你们的声音。我们正在共同努力帮助你们实现这一目标。去年11月，我参观了我们在塞内加尔支持的一个疫苗生产设施。就在上个月，在南非，美国国家过敏和传染病研究所与Afrigen公司合作，就下一代mRNA疫苗开发和治疗方法分享技术专长。
所有这些合作都符合我们的共同利益，因为正如新冠病毒疫情所表明，只要我们任何一个国家面临风险，我们所有国家都将面临风险。
由此，我想到了我们的伙伴关系至关重要的最后一个领域：引领清洁能源转型，拯救我们的地球，适应气候变化的影响，通过提供能源创造经济机会。
联合国承认非洲是世界上最容易受到气候影响的地区。不久前，这些影响还存在于我们的想象之中；今天，它们已经影响到我们的生活。今年4月，我们目睹灾难性的洪水在德班周围造成400多人死亡。由于气候变化，导致此类洪水的暴雨发生的可能性已经增加了一倍；随着地球继续变暖，其频率和强度只会增加。就像在美国一样，那些已经在为生计苦苦挣扎的人受到的打击最为沉重。
我完全同意贵国外交部长的看法——并非所有国家都对这场危机负有同等责任。美国的人口约占世界人口的4%，但我们造成了约11%的全球排放，使我们成为仅次于中国的第二大排放国。占世界人口15%的撒哈拉以南非洲仅产生3%的排放量。从历史上看，像我们这样的大型经济体采取的一些发展措施对气候产生了影响，我们现在认识到这一点，因此我们请求其他国家不再采用这些措施。
我们还认识到这种不平衡给美国这样的国家带来了更大的责任，既要减少我们自己的排放，还要帮助其他国家向清洁能源过渡并适应不断变化的气候。因此，在联合国气候变化大会第26次缔约方会议（COP26）上，拜登总统承诺与我们的国会合作，每年投入30亿美元帮助最脆弱的国家适应气候变化的影响。世界上20个最易受气候影响的国家中有17个在撒哈拉以南的非洲，此项援助的大部分也将提供给该地区。今年晚些时候将在埃及举行COP27，届时我们将进一步加强这些措施和其他努力。
非洲各国领导人明确表示，虽然他们致力于为减少气候变化尽自己的一份力量，但他们需要更多、更可靠的能源供应来满足人们的迫切需求和不断增长的需求。我们听到了你们的声音。
我们知道，这种转变在不同国家或社区之间会有差异——它需要基于各国的能力和具体情况进行调整。在你们确定如何最好地满足各自在能源和经济发展方面的特定需求并设定气候目标时，美国将坚定不移地与你们密切合作。对于在向清洁能源转型的过程中承担最大短期成本的工人和社区，我们还将致力于帮助你们的国家为他们提供支持。所有这些都是我们所说的公正能源转型的重要组成部分。
但我认为仅仅从威胁和负担的视角来看待气候问题是错误的——将其视为必须在防止灾难和创造机会之间做出选择也是错误的。我们面临一个千载难逢的机会，能够在扩大能源供应的同时为非洲人和美国人创造机会。正是基于这种看法，拜登总统说：“当我想到气候变化时，我想到的是工作机会。”
我们已经展示了如何做到这一点。在加纳，我们正在合作建造西非第一座混合太阳能水电站。它将提高可靠性、降低成本并每年减少超过47,000吨的排放量。这相当于道路上减少了大约一万辆汽车。在肯尼亚，90%的能源来自可再生能源，美国公司已向离网能源市场投资5.7亿美元，创造了40,000个绿色就业机会。
我们还共同努力保护和恢复非洲大陆的自然生态系统，这对于减少排放和保护非洲大陆独特、非凡的生物多样性至关重要。这意味着为政府和社区提供真正的激励措施，让他们选择保护而不是砍伐森林。仅仅作出承诺是不够的，因为在刚果盆地——有“世界第一肺”之称——这样的地区，失去森林的持久后果对当地社区将是毁灭性的和不可逆转的，世界各地的社区也是如此。
如果你们退后一步，想一想我今天提出的优先要务，实际情况是，每一项优先要务都是由非洲人倡导引领——健康和气候的相互联系、所有国家都应该有权选择自己的命运的原则、国家内部和国家之间的不平等威胁到我们共同的安全和繁荣的理念。几十年来，非洲公民、非洲国家、非洲地区的国家组织一直在推动这些优先要务。今天，为了美国和所有国家人民的利益，这些已经成为全世界的优先要务。
目前，在南非的北开普省，世界上最大的射电望远镜——MeerKAT——正在捕捉我们所能获得的一些最详细的太空视图。一月份发布的一系列图像显示了25,000光年外的银河系中的一亿颗恒星产生的动能爆发——炽热的红色和橙色。
仅制作其中一张图像就需要70TB的数据。处理过程花了三年时间——部分前沿研究正在南非进行。同样是在这个国家，一位学者写道，“在1994年之前，公共投资……在很大程度上是推进种族隔离政府目标的工具。”顺便说一句，那是潘多尔博士在担任科技部长时写的。（掌声）
当MeerKAT的图像发布时，南非射电天文台的首席科学家说：“最好的望远镜以意想不到的方式扩大了我们的视野。”试想一下，这些图像所扩展的所有视野。想想世界各地的科学家使用MeerKAT的数据来破解人类存在的最大奥秘，比如地球以外是否存在生命。想想经常参观MeerKAT-64巨大天线的南非中小学生——想象一下他们在这样的启发下未来去做的所有事情。
最好的合作伙伴关系也像最好的望远镜一样：它们以意想不到的方式扩大了我们的视野。它不仅帮助我们解决问题，也推动我们去惊叹，去探索，去激励别人。非洲国家和美国在许多领域还有很多事情要做，包括我们甚至可能还没有发现的一些领域。作为合作伙伴，我们有能力开拓这样的视野。
非常感谢。（掌声）
 
欲查看原稿内容: https://www.state.gov/vital-partners-shared-priorities-the-biden-administrations-sub-saharan-africa-strategy/
本译文仅供参考，只有英文原稿才可以被视为权威资料来源。

SPEECH
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
FUTURE AFRICA
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
AUGUST 8, 2022
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you so much. Good afternoon, everyone. It’s wonderful to be here, wonderful to be at this extraordinary university. To Professor Maharaj, to the entire leadership of the University of Pretoria, thank you for hosting us today on this magnificent campus.
And Madam Minister, my friend Naledi, thank you that generous introduction. But thank you especially for the partnership that we’ve been building, not just between our countries but actually between ourselves, something I value tremendously. And I thank you for it.
Let me just take a moment at the start also to welcome someone else, our ambassador-designate to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, who will present his credentials to President Ramaphosa this week. Reuben, where are you? (Applause.)
Reuben previously served as the U.S. ambassador to the African Union, among other senior posts in our government, as well as president and dean of multiple universities. I can’t imagine a better steward of the relationship between our nations.
For me, it is, simply put, wonderful to be back in South Africa. I’ve actually had the privilege of visiting several times before, including with President Clinton, President Obama, and then-Vice President Biden. And the impressions from those visits are very much seared into my own memory.
Seeing President Clinton become the first U.S. president to address your parliament, joined by a delegation from our Congressional Black Caucus, many of whom were stalwart supporters of the anti-apartheid movement and who represent part of the vast African diaspora that enriches our nations’ ties.
Seeing our first black president, the son of a Kenyan father and an American mother, stand in the two-by-two-meter cell on Robben Island that once jailed South Africa’s first black president.
Or hearing the buzz of the vuvuzelas as the U.S. men’s team played the first World Cup ever held in Africa. So some of these sounds can never be unheard, and some early eliminations still hurt. (Laughter.) But hope springs eternal.
Today, as the minister said, I have the honor of setting out our government’s new strategy for the partnership between sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. It’s a strategy that builds on the broad vision for our nation’s engagement of the region, which I had an opportunity to share last November in Nigeria.
And it is fitting to set out the strategy here, on the Future Africa campus, an institution whose mission is bringing together people from different disciplines, backgrounds, and nationalities to tackle some of the most vexing challenges of our time.
Our future depends on young people like the scholars and practitioners who come here to study. And, as you’ve heard, by 2050, one in four people on the planet we share will be African. They will shape the destiny not only of this continent but of the world.
It’s also fitting because South Africa’s struggle for freedom, and the courage and sacrifices of those who led it, continues to inspire people around the world. We know that in your nation, like ours, the long walk to freedom is unfinished. Yet the remarkable progress you’ve made is all around us.
In 1956, 156 activists were rounded up for rallying support for the Freedom Charter, a document that had the audacity to claim that South Africa belonged to its people. When the Treason Trial began here in Pretoria, the accused included one of the charter’s drafters, Professor Z.K. Matthews, and a rising ANC activist, Joe Matthews – father and son, and grandfather and father to the woman who today serves as South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr. Naledi Pandor. (Applause.)
And maybe just as important for this audience, that “Doctor” before the minister’s name was earned here at the University of Pretoria.
We see that progress also in the achievements of your fellow South Africans – the recent triumphs of the women of Banyana Banyana, the men of the Springboks. (Applause.) The enduring musical influences of Makeba and Masekela, the new sway of the Amapiano and DJs like – (applause) – there you go – DJs like Black Coffee, who just took home a Grammy.
Finally, it’s fitting to set out our strategy here in South Africa because there is such a deep bond between our nations and people, and all we have in common as vibrant democracies whose diversity remains our greatest strength.
Our strategy is rooted in the recognition that sub-Saharan Africa is a major geopolitical force, one that shaped our past, is shaping our present, and will shape our future.
It’s a strategy that reflects the region’s complexity – its diversity, its power and influence – and one that focuses on what we will do with African nations and peoples, not for African nations and peoples.
Put simply, the United States and African nations can’t achieve any of our shared priorities, whether that’s recovering from the pandemic, creating broad-based economic opportunity, addressing the climate crisis, expanding energy access, revitalizing democracies, strengthening the free and open international order – we can’t do any of that if we don’t work together as equal partners.
So today I’d like to focus on four priorities that we believe we have to tackle together which are at the heart of the U.S. strategy for sub-Saharan Africa.
First, we will foster openness, by which we mean the capacity of individuals, communities, and nations to choose their own path and shape the world we live in.
When leaders of newly independent African nations came together in 1963 to establish the Organization of African Unity, the predecessor to the African Union, here’s how they began their charter: “Convinced that it is the inalienable right of all people to control their own destiny.”
It was a conviction born of the struggle of generations of Africans whose destiny had been determined by colonial powers. This inalienable right depends on a system of rules and principles which Africans have helped forge over decades through their leadership in institutions like the United Nations and the African Union.
And yet too often African nations have been treated as instruments of other nations’ progress rather than the authors of their own. Time and again they have been told to pick a side in great power contests that feel far removed from daily struggles of their people.
The United States will not dictate Africa’s choices. Neither should anyone else. The right to make these choices belongs to Africans, and Africans alone.
At the same time, the United States and the world will look to African nations to defend the rules of the international system that they’ve done so much to shape. These include the right of every country to have its independence, its sovereignty, is territorial integrity respected, a principle at stake now in Ukraine.
We believe that all nations should be able to stand up for the right of a country not to have its borders redrawn by force, for if we allow that principle to be violated anywhere, we weaken it everywhere.
Openness also means creating pathways for the free flow of ideas, information, investment, which in the 21st century requires digital connectivity. So the United States is partnering with African governments, businesses, entrepreneurs to build and adapt the infrastructure that enables that connectivity – an open, reliable, interoperable, secure internet; data centers; cloud computing.
That’s what happened in March, when Mozambique became the first African country to license SpaceX’s Starlink technology. That uses satellites to provide internet service, and it’s going to help expand access and lower costs for people throughout the country’s rural areas.
Now, one reason internet service is so spotty in places like Mozambique is because providers rely on data centers that are hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away. We’re working with African countries and businesses to change that.
The U.S. Development Finance Corporation is putting $300 million in financing toward developing, building, and operating data centers across the region, including here in South Africa.
We recently awarded a $600 million contract to build an undersea telecommunications cable that will stretch over 17,000 kilometers – from Southeast Asia through the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, to Europe – delivering high-speed, reliable, secure connections for people across the continents.
The way this infrastructure is built will reverberate for decades. After all, we’ve seen the consequences when international infrastructure deals are corrupt and coercive, when they’re poorly built or environmentally destructive, when they import or abuse workers, or burden countries with crushing debts.
That’s why it’s so important for countries to have choices, to be able to weigh them transparently, with the input of local communities without pressure or coercion.
Now, for as long as they’ve had their independence, African countries have also recognized that the right of nations to chart their own path is bound up in ensuring the right of individual citizens to do the same thing.
So this brings me to our second priority: working with African partners to fulfill the promise of democracy.
The overwhelming majority of people across Africa prefer democracy to any other form of government. Even greater majorities oppose the authoritarian alternatives to democracy. More than 70 percent reject military rule; more than 80 percent reject one-man rule, according to the Africa-based polling organization Afrobarometer.
African citizens want democracy – that is clear. The question – the question is whether African governments can make democracy deliver by improving the lives of their citizens in tangible ways. That is a challenge that is not unique to Africa. It’s one facing democracies in every part of the world, including the United States. And it’s a problem that won’t be fixed by maintaining the same approach.
So here’s what we’ll do differently. We won’t treat democracy as an area where Africa has problems and the United States has solutions. We recognize that our democracies face common challenges, which we need to tackle together, as equals, alongside other governments, civil society, and citizens.
That was the spirit that animated the 100 countries that came together for the Summit for Democracy President Biden hosted last December. It will drive the African Leaders Summit that the United States will host this December for the first time since 2014 – providing an opportunity to build greater momentum around tackling shared priorities.
We will work with partners to tackle 21st century threats to democracy like misinformation, digital surveillance, weaponized corruption. We’ll launch a novel approach to good governance, the Global Fragility Act, which will make a decade-long investment in promoting more peaceful, more inclusive, more resilient societies in places where conditions are ripe for conflict, including Mozambique – which we spoke about today – the Coastal West African countries of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Togo.
In each of these places, we’re starting by asking our local partners where our help can make the biggest difference. And we’re drawing on decades of lessons learned in conflict prevention, such as cultivating relationships between community leaders, government officials, and security forces, which are vital to defusing tensions before they erupt into violence; and building resilience to the destabilizing impacts of climate change, like more frequent, more severe droughts.
Thanks to bipartisan support in the United States Congress, this initiative can count on $200 million a year in funding – every year, for 10 years. That’s the kind of horizon that will allow us to look beyond quick fixes.
We’ll focus on the connection between democracy and security. History shows that strong democracies tend to be more stable and less prone to conflict – and that poor governance, exclusion, and corruption inherent in weak democracies makes them more vulnerable to extremist movements as well as to foreign interference. That includes the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group, which exploits instability to pillage resources and commit abuses with impunity, as we’ve seen in Mali and the Central African Republic.
The United States recognizes that African countries face real security concerns, and that countless communities are afflicted by the twin scourges of terrorism and violence. But the answer to those problems is not Wagner, it’s not any other mercenary group. The answer is working to build more effective, accountable African security forces, which respect people’s rights, and tackling the marginalization that often drives people to criminal or extremist groups. The answer is sustained diplomacy to end violence and open paths to peace – diplomacy that’s increasingly being led by African leaders, regional organizations, and citizens.
African countries can count on the United States to support these efforts, as we’ve demonstrated through our engagement in places like Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, eastern DRC, which is a key focus of my visit this week.
Finally, the answer is peaceful transitions of power, through free and fair elections. African leaders are increasingly underscoring the importance of these transitions to regional security and prosperity. That includes ECOWAS, which is debating whether its 15 member nations should adopt a ban on presidents seeking a third term. Among the most outspoken proponents of the ban are the presidents of Ghana and Nigeria, both of whom are in their second term.
Tomorrow, Kenyans will elect a new leader, and Angolans will follow suit later this month. In 2023, the peoples of DRC, Nigeria, and Senegal will all go to the polls. Every one of these elections is an opportunity for African citizens and nations to reaffirm that leaders are accountable to their people, and strengthen the case for democracy in the region and around the world.
Third, we’ll work together to recover from the devastation wrought by COVID-19 and lay the foundation for broad-based, sustainable economic opportunity to improve the lives of our people.
We know the pandemic has dealt a devastating blow to Africa – lives lost, livelihoods shattered. More than 55 million Africans have been driven into poverty by the pandemic, setting back decades of hard-earned progress. The economic pain has been deepened by Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine.
Even before President Putin launched his full invasion, 193 million people worldwide were in need of humanitarian food assistance. The World Bank believes that Russia’s invasion could add another 40 million people to this unprecedented number. Most are in Africa.
The United States is there for African countries in this unprecedented crisis, because that’s what partners do for each other, and because helping Africans jumpstart a broad-based recovery and build resilience to weather future shocks is vital to our shared prosperity.
So let me briefly share how we’re doing that. We’re rallying other countries and international institutions to step up on key challenges, like debt relief. Together with South Africa and other members of the G20, we helped develop a Common Framework for Debt Relief, bringing in China and other creditors for the very first time. For Zambia, this collective commitment is poised to unlock $1.4 billion in an IMF program designed to help the country return to a stable economic path and foster more resilient, inclusive growth for the Zambian people.
We’re also providing life-saving support. Since the beginning of the year, the United States has sent more than $6.6 billion in humanitarian and food assistance to Africa.
A couple of months ago, in May, I brought together a Global Food Security Ministerial meeting at the United Nations to try to rally donors to close some of the urgent funding gaps and allow affected countries to highlight the areas where they need support. Our African colleagues made clear that, beyond emergency relief, what they really want is more investment in agricultural resilience, innovation, self-sufficiency. We’re responding to those calls.
Our initiative called Feed the Future will invest $11 billion over five years in 20 partner countries, 16 of which are in Africa. And a new initiative we launched with the United Arab Emirates is turbo-charging investment and innovation in climate smart agriculture.
Now, it’s not just agriculture. Across a range of fields, the United States is working with African partners to try to unlock innovation and growth. As we do, we’re building on African-led initiatives, such as the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, which, when fully implemented will comprise the fifth largest economic bloc in the world, and also the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
Now think about infrastructure for a minute. At the G7 meeting just recently held, President Biden led in launching the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which will mobilize $600 billion globally toward concrete projects over the next five years. The United States is committed to raising $200 billion towards this effort, and we’re already implementing projects that are focused on health, on digital infrastructure, empowering women and girls, energy, and climate.
Consider youth. Yesterday, I met with alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship. Since President Obama launched the program eight years ago, more than 5,000 rising leaders from every country in Sub-Saharan Africa have come to the United States for academic and leadership training – buildings skills and, as important, relationships that will last a lifetime. The broader YALI Network, which provides tools, resources, a virtual community for young African leaders, now has more than 700,000 members.
Consider what we’re doing in health. In 2003, President George W. Bush created PEPFAR to make a transformational investment in HIV prevention, detection, treatment, and care. It’s one of the greatest initiatives, I think, the United States has undertaken in my lifetime. Since that time, we’ve invested over $100 billion in the effort, nearly all of it in partners in Sub-Saharan Africa. Together, we have saved the lives of an estimated 21 million people. We prevented millions more infections, including five and a half million babies born HIV-free.
Now, think about that for a second. These are big numbers, and we have – we talk about numbers, and it sometimes defies us really understanding what it’s all about. Each of these numbers is an individual life, an individual destiny, an individual story. And thanks to this incredible work, those stories have continued, and they’re going to contribute so much to the world that we share.
Today, PEPFAR supports 70,000 health clinics, 3,000 laboratories, 300,000 health workers, and countless DREAMS ambassadors, who help keep adolescent girls and young women safe from HIV, including, I think, some who are with us today in this audience.
These efforts are making a lasting difference in the lives of millions of Africans. That’s what we’ve seen during the pandemic, when, in addition to providing more than 170 million doses of safe, effective COVID vaccines to African countries – free of charge and with more to come – the health systems we’ve built together over decades have saved countless lives. Clinics that we’ve built together have tended to people with the most severe COVID cases. Community health workers we helped train have gone door to door, getting jabs into arms. Research partnerships that we’ve co-developed have led to breakthroughs in identifying new variants of COVID and treatments.
Meanwhile, our partnerships with national and regional health institutions – like the Africa CDC – have helped detect and respond to new outbreaks like our recent collaboration with Ghana to contain that country’s first case of Marburg disease.
And where the pandemic has also exposed gaps, we’re working to address them together.
Back in February, I brought together foreign ministers from 40 countries – including Minister Pandor – as well as multilateral bodies like the African Union. We put together a Global Action Plan that defines key priorities, like ensuring more equitable distribution of vaccines, and we set concrete targets. Then we divided up responsibility among our nations to meet those targets, drawing on our complementary strengths. And we’re getting together regularly to make sure that we’re tracking our progress.
Together with South Africa, Indonesia, and other G20 members, we also stood up a historic new fund at the World Bank and the World Health Organization for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. This will be critical in providing sustainable support to strengthen the health security of countries and regions in need and break the cycle of crisis and neglect. We go through this every time: major crisis; we rally; we mobilize; the crisis is over; we go back to business as usual. We can’t afford to do that, and we won’t.
We’ve also heard the desire of African countries for vaccine self-sufficiency. We’re working together to help you achieve it. In November, I visited one of the vaccine production facilities that we’re helping support in Senegal. And just last month, the U.S. National Institution of Allergy and Infectious Diseases teamed up with Afrigen to share technical expertise on the development of next-generation mRNA vaccines as well as therapeutics, and that is happening right here in South Africa.
All of this collaboration is in our mutual interest, because as the pandemic has demonstrated, as long as any of us are at risk, all of us are at risk.
That brings me to the final area where our partnership is crucial: leading on clean energy transition that saves our planet, adapts to the effects of climate change, and provides energy to power economic opportunity.
The United Nations recognizes Africa as the most vulnerable region in the world to the effects of climate. Not too long ago, we had to imagine those effects. Today, we’re living them. You saw it in April, when catastrophic flooding killed more than 400 people around Durban. Storms like the ones that caused those floods – they’re now twice as likely to occur due to climate change, and that will only increase in frequency and intensity as the Earth continues to warm. As in the United States, the people who are already struggling are being hit the hardest.
Now, I could not agree more with the foreign minister – not all countries bear equal responsibility for this crisis. The United States has around 4 percent of the world’s population; we contribute about 11 percent of global emissions, making us the second-biggest emitter after China. Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 15 percent of the world’s population, produces only 3 percent of emissions. And historically, major economies like ours took steps to develop that we’re now asking others to forgo because we’ve understood the impact on climate.
We recognize this imbalance places a greater responsibility on countries like the United States, both to reduce our own emissions, but also to help other countries make the transition to clean energy and adapt to a changing climate. That’s why, at COP26, President Biden committed to work with our Congress to dedicate $3 billion a year to help people in the most vulnerable countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. As home to 17 of the world’s 20 most climate-vulnerable countries, much of this aid will go to sub-Saharan Africa. And we will look to build on these and other efforts at COP27 in Egypt later this year.
Now, leaders across Africa have made clear that while they are committed to doing their part to reduce climate change, they need greater and more reliable energy access to meet people’s urgent needs and growing needs. We hear you.
We know that this transition will not look the same in every country or community – that it will need to be tailored to individual capacities and individual circumstances. And the United States is committed to working closely with you as you determine how best to meet your specific needs for expanded energy access and economic development, as well as the climate targets that you’ve set. We’re also committed to helping you support the workers and communities who will bear the greatest short-term costs of the shift to clean energy. All that is part and parcel of making what we call a just energy transition.
But I think it’s a mistake to think about climate only through the prism of threats, burdens – or to frame this as a choice between preventing a catastrophe and creating opportunities. We have a once-in-generations opportunity to expand energy access and create opportunities – for Africans and for Americans. That’s what President Biden means when he says, “When I think of climate change, I think jobs.”
We’re already showing how that can be done. In Ghana, we’re working with partners to build West Africa’s first hybrid solar-hydro plant. It’s going to improve reliability, reduce costs, and cut more than 47,000 tons of emissions every year. That is the equivalent of taking about 10,000 cars off the road. In Kenya, where 90 percent of the energy comes from renewable sources, U.S. firms have invested $570 million into off-grid energy markets, creating 40,000 green jobs.
We’re also working together to conserve and restore the continent’s natural ecosystems, crucial to reducing emissions and preserving the continent’s unique, extraordinary biodiversity. That means delivering real incentives for governments and communities to choose conservation over deforestation, not just pledges, because the lasting consequences of losing forests like the one in the Congo Basin – the world’s first lung – they will be devastating and irreversible for local communities as well as for communities around the world.
If you step back and think for a minute on the priorities that I’ve set out today, the reality is that every single one of them was championed by Africans first – the interconnectedness of our health and our climate, the principle that all nations should have the right to choose their own fate, the idea that inequity within and between nations threatens our shared security and prosperity. For decades, African citizens, African countries, the bloc of African nations pushed for these very priorities. And today, to the benefit of people in the United States and all nations, these are the world’s priorities.
Right now, in South Africa’s Northern Cape, the biggest radio telescope in the world – the MeerKAT – is capturing some of the most detailed views we’ve ever had of space. A series of images released in January show kinetic bursts of energy – incandescent reds and oranges – generated by a hundred million stars in the Milky Way, 25,000 light years away.
Producing just one of these images required 70 terabytes of data. It took three years to process – part of the cutting-edge research being led right here in South Africa. And this in a country where, as one scholar wrote, and I quote, “Prior to 1994, public investment… was largely an instrument for advancing the objectives of the apartheid government.” That was Dr. Pandor, by the way, writing when was serving as minister of science and technology. (Applause.)
When MeerKAT’s images were published, the chief scientist at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory said, “The best telescopes expand our horizons in unexpected ways.” Just think, for a moment, of all the horizons expanded by those images. Think of the scientists around the world using MeerKAT’s data to unpack the greatest mysteries of human existence, like whether there’s life beyond Earth. Think of the South African schoolkids who regularly visit MeerKAT-64’s massive antennae – and imagine all the things that they will be inspired to do.
What’s true of the best telescopes is true of the best partnerships: They expand our horizons in unexpected ways. To solve problems, yes, but also to marvel, to explore, to inspire. There is so much more for African nations and the United States to do together across so many fields, including some we may not even have discovered yet. As partners, that horizon is ours to make.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)