ESSENCE OF NEW AFRICAN STRATEGY

 

In August last year, the U.S. announced a new African strategy calling for further strengthening cooperation with the African countries in the fields of democracy, security, economy and so on for the next five years, enumerating the geopolitical importance of Africa such as rapid population growth, rich natural resources and influence in the UN arena.

The high-ranking politicians of the White House who recently visited Africa as if to prove the authenticity of the new strategy spouted a string of gorgeous words and made various kinds of promises of cooperation as if they would make a great contribution to defusing the economic crisis and ensuring security and social development in African countries.

However, from a close look at the words and actions they have taken on the spots, one can easily see what the new U.S. African strategy is aiming at.

The secretary of Treasury, the first U.S. official who flew to the region this year, stressed the need to impose a cap on the prices of Russian gas and oil while blaming food crisis on the continent on Russia wherever he went. And in Zambia, he tried to shift the responsibility for the debt crisis of the region to China, saying that China's "positive cooperation" is necessary to solve the external debt problem in the country.

The secretary of State who visited Niger also incited the anti-Russian atmosphere by pulling up Russia over its military activities in the West African region, and the vice-president, who visited Ghana and Zambia, which were experiencing the worst debt crisis in Africa, gave a wide publicity to the "transparent aid" from the United States and the "danger" of the Chinese investment.

After all, the utterances of the high-ranking officials of the U.S. administration remind one of the statement in the new African strategy published by the U.S. last year to the effect that Russia and China are creating instability and challenging the international order to meet their interests in Africa.

All facts prove that the new African strategy of the U.S. is never for the African countries but to contain and hold hegemony over China and Russia which are exercising increasing influences in the region and thus to provide a springboard for realizing its world strategy.