Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Accra, Ghana, on Sunday, kicking off a weeklong vacation on the continent that will also get her to Tanzania and Zambia.
Harris, the to start with Black lady U.S. vice president, is earning her first excursion to Africa while in place of work.
She arrived Sunday in Air Power Two with the 2nd gentleman, Doug Emhoff, and was greeted by Ghana’s Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.
The welcome ceremony included a reward of flowers, dancers and drummers as she walked down a red carpet and a large team of children gathered to the side of the stage where by she made short remarks.
“What an honor it is to be listed here in Ghana and on the continent of Africa,” she stated on the tarmac of Kotoka Global Airport.
“I’m really excited about the influence of Africa on the relaxation of the world,” she stated, pointing to a foreseeable future in the coming many years in which the population — with a current median age of 19 — would assist put African nations at the heart of international relations.
Whilst on her excursion, Harris mentioned she wants to encourage “escalating investments,” the “economic empowerment” of girls, ladies and young businesspeople, “electronic inclusion” and food items protection in light of mounting worries from climate alter.
Vice President Kamala Harris provides a speech at the Kotoka Worldwide Airport, March 26, 2023 in Accra, Ghana.
Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images
She stated she will also be talking about democracy and authorities as she fulfills with a variety of leaders and will be observing just some of the innovation and creativity that is “inspiring the earth.”
“We have a lot of do the job ahead of us, and yet again I’m so quite energized to be listed here,” she reported.
The vice president will meet up with with Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday and keep a information conference adhering to their assembly.
She travels to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Wednesday afternoon, and then departs Tanzania for Lusaka, the Zambian money, on Friday, the place she will meet with President Hakainde Hichilema.
She returns to Washington on April 2.
Harris proceeds the Biden administration’s outreach to African countries amid competitors from China and their developing affect on the continent, wherever nations have solid trade and other ties with Beijing.
Previewing the vice president’s agenda on a connect with with reporters on Thursday evening, senior administration officials mentioned Harris will be inquiring the leaders not to “select” in between the U.S. and China but to “broaden” their options.
Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at the Kotoka Worldwide Airport to start her excursion to Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, in Accra, Ghana, March 26, 2023.
Francis Kokoroko/Reuters
“We are unable to ignore the present geopolitical moment. It can be no secret that we are engaged in levels of competition with China. And we have stated incredibly clearly we intend to out-contend China in the prolonged phrase,” the officers reported.
In a display of how much Tanzania values their connection with China, President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s 1st point out stop by outside of Africa previous November was to satisfy President Xi Jinping in Beijing the place their conference centered on locations of cooperation such as agriculture trade and infrastructure.
Two notable moments to check out for throughout Harris’ excursion will be in Ghana and Zambia. The administration officers stated that on Monday, Harris will tour Cape Coastline Castle, a former slave-trade outpost and site of the so-named “Door of No Return,” and deliver remarks on the “brutality of slavery and the African diaspora.”
And Harris’ time in Zambia will be noteworthy as it marks her return to the place for the 1st time due to the fact she was a youthful female. In the 1960s, she traveled there to visit her maternal grandfather, who was a civil servant in India and labored for various many years in the Zambian authorities on refugee resettlement problems.