U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is heading to Africa for a 10-day trip to Senegal, South Africa and Zambia.
The continent’s green transition will feature prominently, with Yellen visiting South African coal country to champion the implementation of an $8.5 billion deal, partly funded by the U.S., to boost the country’s move to green energy in the face of knotted government hydrocarbon interests.
Yellen’s visit to Zambia is expected to be dominated by its troubled debt renegotiation process. She is a prominent critic of China’s role in the process. The U.S. Treasury announced earlier this week that Yellen will make a detour to Switzerland to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Wednesday to discuss “macroeconomic developments and other economic issues.” Debt is likely to feature prominently in this discussion too.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, will also travel to Zambia in two weeks in the run-up to a meeting of a new sovereign debt roundtable (which will include China) on the sidelines of G20 finance ministers’ meeting in India in February.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?: Yellen’s visit signals a reenergizing of the United States’s relationship with the continent in the wake of 2022’s U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit and sets up trips by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris this year.
SUGGESTED READING:
- Financial Times: Janet Yellen to visit African countries as US steps up overtures to continent by David Pilling, James Politi and Joseph Cotterill
- National Public Radio: What Janet Yellen hopes to accomplish during her trip to Africa
