LUANDA, Jan 25, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on

Thursday will explore greater coordination with emerging regional partner
Angola, capping a tour of Africa to champion US-friendly democracies as
global crises mount.

After years of estrangement with Washington during the Cold War, Angola has
seen growing common ground with the United States including by working
together to address violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Blinken arrived late Wednesday in the oil-rich former Portuguese colony's
capital Luanda, where billboards with his picture welcomed him. He will meet
Friday with President Joao Lourenco, who met US President Joe Biden at the
White House just two months ago.

Angola is a linchpin of one of the signature US infrastructure projects on
the continent -- the Lobito Corridor, which will connect landlocked Zambia,
hailed by Washington as a model for its robust democracy, as well as
resource-rich DR Congo to an Angolan port on the Atlantic Ocean.

China, seen by the United States as its top competitor, has rapidly expanded
its footprint in Africa through infrastructure spending, while Russia has
ramped up security ties with military-run states.

Blinken said the Lobito Corridor showed that the United States was not
looking at making African states reliant on Washington.

"Here's the biggest difference maker, I think -- the United States also, and
maybe uniquely, invests in knowledge, and transferring knowledge, and sharing
techniques," he told Channels Television on his previous stop in Nigeria.

Blinken's trip, which also took him to Ivory Coast and Cape Verde, comes as
many Africans voice unease both at the billions of dollars provided by the
United States to Ukraine to defend against Russia and at US support for
Israel as it bombards Gaza in response to a Hamas attack.

South Africa, which Blinken is not visiting, has irritated Washington by
bringing a case to the International Criminal Court alleging genocide by
Israel.

Biden has said that the United States is "all in" for Africa but he did not
live up to a promise to visit the continent last year.

- Seeking DRC headway -

The United States during the Cold War backed UNITA rebels in Angola but has
built close relations as the country transitioned to democracy.

Angola, no stranger to conflict, has taken a leading role alongside Kenya in
seeking an end to unrest in the east of vast DR Congo.

Talks in Luanda in late 2022 reached an agreement for a drawback of the M23,
ethnic Tutsi rebels that Kinshasa charges are backed by Rwanda, but the
insurgents instead have since swept vast territory.

The United States has made a new push to support the Angolan and Kenyan
mediation, with intelligence chief Avril Haines in November meeting both DR
Congo President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame and
agreeing on steps to de-escalate.

While remaining deeply worried, US officials believe that greater engagement
is the best chance to prevent a worsening of the conflict, which has caused
major displacement and taken an especially heavy toll on women.

Blinken over the past two weeks met at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland with Kagame and spoke by telephone with Tshisekedi, who is
starting a new five-year term after elections.

The United States has previously found credible the allegations of Rwandan
support for the M23. Kagame in turn has demanded action against Hutu fighters
connected to the perpetrators of Rwanda's 1994 genocide which targeted
Tutsis.

"It's very difficult, but the parties have been very responsive to our
engagement," Molly Phee, the top US diplomat for Africa, said ahead of the
trip.

"We're going to hopefully help consolidate some of the intense discussions
we've had over the past six weeks or so, and see if we can help the Africans
set things on the right track."