The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

36 SEPTEMBER 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL and inclusive growth—and African leaders are engaging with counterparts who are responding to the continent’s vision for the future. Significant attention is given to China’s relationship with Africa, and this well-documented relationship has played a role in fueling China’s economic growth. Since 2000, China has held a triennial meeting with African counterparts—the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation—and has made no secret of its interest to create a closer connection with the continent. It’s little wonder that in 2009, China became the continent’s top trading partner and that in 2013 it surpassed the United States as the largest investor in Africa. During the 2021 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Beijing signed a memorandum of understanding to provide technical assistance and support for implementation of the AfCFTA agreement, further extending its reach through standards setting in the chief vehicle that will dictate trade terms. Similarly, in February 2022, Brussels hosted the sixth European Union–African Union Summit, in which the partners announced a new action plan through 2030 as part of their joint vision for renewed partnership. Using mutual interest as a guide and focusing on a joint program of shared priorities, the summit convened the 27 E.U. and 55 A.U. member states and signed onto a commitment to support projects in sectors ranging from health and energy to digital and infrastructure with €150 billion in investment. “As Africa sets sail on the future, the European Union wants to be Africa’s partner of choice,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated Feb. 18. The absence of high-level U.S. strategic engagement with the continent is striking. Our partnerships are on display nearly everywhere else in the world. In June, the United States hosted the ninth Summit of the Americas (SOTA), where the U.S. presi- dent has gathered with regional counterparts in the Western Hemisphere every three years since the U.S. convened the first summit in 1994 (and since 2012, this has included an accompa- nying CEO summit). The U.S. head of state meets peers annually in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum founded in