When President Joe Biden visited Angola last week, one of the highlights was his pledge of hundreds of millions of dollars for an ambitious trans-Africa rail project that would bring copper and cobalt from central Africa to the Atlantic port of Lobito.
The project is possible because of the commitment of a $553 million direct loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, created in 2019 during the first Trump administration to counter China's expansion of its global reach through infrastructure projects, such as the mega-port in Chancay, Peru, inaugurated just last month.
