US President Donald Trump will welcome five African leaders to a White House lunch on July 9, with commerce and trade expected to feature prominently amongst a mixed bag of potential agenda items.
Presidents of five African nations, Senegal, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Gabon, will meet in the executive mansion's State Dining Room to discuss trade, investment, and security, among other topics, officials told AFP.
But few concrete details have emerged as to the White House's intentions.
The meeting comes as the Trump administration is focused on tariffs and trade deals and as it seeks to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals.
But the five nations lack the extreme mineral wealth of other African countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The gathering takes place just days after the Trump administration celebrated the formal shuttering of the US foreign aid agency USAID, trumpeting the move as an end to the "charity-based model.”
Officials from the five countries who spoke to AFP seemed keenly aware of the White House ethos.
Liberia's President Joseph Boakai accepted the invitation with an eye on no longer being "solely an aid recipient," his press secretary Kula Fofana told AFP on Tuesday.
"Our interest is to look more to trade and engagement partners who will invest," she said.
Gabonese presidential spokesman Theophane Biyoghe said the meeting marked a chance for synergies "centred around the industrialisation of our economy".
Competition and security
US archrivals China and Russia have made major inroads into the region recently, including substantial investments by Beijing in a number of countries.
Moscow, meanwhile, has lent support to the region's newly formed Alliance of Sahel States (AES), comprised of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
The alliance states share borders with several of the countries at Wednesday's lunch.
Shortly before leaving for Washington, Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo described the visit to the press as "very important" for his country.
"Economically, this is a great opportunity opening for us," he declared, adding that he hoped his country would also benefit from "the support" the United States provides to other countries.
‘Precarious visits’
A number of world leaders have faced brutal political ambushes during White House visits.
Among them are Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
During a visit, Trump showed the South African leader a video of baseless claims of a "white genocide" being committed in his country.
While those episodes happened in front of cameras in the Oval Office, the five African presidents meeting Trump on Wednesday are so far not scheduled to appear before the press.
