Start of Biden’s Visit to Angola Overshadowed by Son’s Pardon

US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One as he departs for Luanda, Angola, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, December 1, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One as he departs for Luanda, Angola, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, December 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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Start of Biden’s Visit to Angola Overshadowed by Son’s Pardon

US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One as he departs for Luanda, Angola, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, December 1, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One as he departs for Luanda, Angola, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, December 1, 2024. (Reuters)

US President Joe Biden landed in Angola on Monday for a visit focused on a US-backed railway project and on the legacy of slavery, but his decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden threatened to overshadow the official agenda.

The visit fulfills a promise to visit Sub-Saharan Africa during his presidency and aims to bolster the Lobito Corridor project, which links resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean.

At stake are vast supplies of minerals like copper and cobalt, which are found in Congo and are a key component of batteries and other electronics. China is the top player in Congo, which has become an increasing concern to Washington.

China signed an agreement with Tanzania and Zambia in September to revive a rival railway line to Africa's eastern coast.

"It's going to create incredible economic opportunities here on the continent," Biden's national security spokesperson John Kirby said, speaking about the Lobito Corridor during a briefing to reporters on Air Force One during the flight to Luanda.

He said Biden would unveil additional commitments to the project during his visit, as well as to health, climate and clean energy programs.

However, reporters on the flight had more questions about the Hunter Biden pardon than they did about investment in Africa. The president's spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre responded to them mostly by repeating Joe Biden's own statement on the issue.

The president, whose term in office finishes in January, flew out of Washington shortly after pardoning his son, who had pleaded guilty to tax violations and been convicted on firearms-related charges.

Biden himself did not answer reporters' questions on the pardon during a brief refueling stop in the small island nation of Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa, earlier on Monday.

During his two-day visit to Angola, Biden is scheduled to meet with President Joao Lourenco and the Zambian leader President Hakainde Hichilema, and to tour the national slavery museum and various facilities in Lobito.

Partly funded by a US loan, the Lobito Corridor would make it faster and easier to export critical minerals towards the United States, which has been widely seen as a way to divert some of those resources from China.

"There is no Cold War on the continent. We're not asking countries to choose between us and Russia and China," Kirby said.

"We're simply looking for reliable, sustainable, verifiable investment opportunities that the people of Angola and the people of the continent can rely on, because too many countries have relied on spotty investment opportunities and are now racked by debt," he said.

The Lobito project is backed by global commodities trader Trafigura, Portuguese construction group Mota-Engil and railway operator Vecturis. The US Development Finance Corporation has provided a $550 million loan to refurbish the 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) rail network from Lobito to Congo.



Ukraine Receives F-16s from Netherlands, 1st Mirage Jets from France

A serviceman of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, carries a Shark reconnaissance drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Oleksandr Klymenko
A serviceman of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, carries a Shark reconnaissance drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Oleksandr Klymenko
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Ukraine Receives F-16s from Netherlands, 1st Mirage Jets from France

A serviceman of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, carries a Shark reconnaissance drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Oleksandr Klymenko
A serviceman of the 25th Separate Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, carries a Shark reconnaissance drone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine, February 5, 2025. REUTERS/Oleksandr Klymenko

Ukraine said on Thursday it had received a first batch of French Mirage 2000 fighter jets as well as US-made F-16 fighters from the Netherlands as European allies seek to strengthen Kyiv's hand in its war with Russia.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago, Ukraine had only a largely outdated air force inherited from the Soviet Union when it broke up in 1991.

Now facing Russian advances in the east and long-range air strikes, Ukraine has repeatedly pressed Western allies to supply it with increasingly advanced arms and ammunition including armoured vehicles, tanks, long-range missiles and F-16 fighters.

Mirage 2000s are the latest sophisticated jets Ukraine has received from allies after the first F-16s arrived last summer, marking a military milestone for the country.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised France and the Netherlands for their commitment to helping modernise Ukraine's air force.

"These modern combat aircraft have already arrived in Ukraine and will soon begin carrying out combat missions, strengthening our defense and enhancing our ability to effectively counter Russian aggression," Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said.

The exact number of F-16 and Mirage jets delivered was not revealed.
The Dutch defense ministry said that for security reasons it would not comment on the timing of deliveries, nor on the amount supplied at any given time.

The Netherlands has promised to deliver Ukraine a total of 24 F-16s, next to the fighter jets it supplies to a training center for Ukrainian pilots and crew in Romania.

French officials also cited security reasons in declining to specify how many warplanes had been supplied, although they did say the jets had been adapted to enable air-to-ground strikes, Reuters reported.

The Mirage 2000 is a multi-role, single-engine jet fighter. Last June, President Emmanuel Macron promised that France would train Ukrainian pilots to fly the Dassault-made jets, crossing a new line in military support for Kyiv.

The Mirage, which has been replaced by the Rafale fighter in the French air force, was initially conceived for aerial dogfights.
A French parliamentary report at the end of 2024 said that of the 26 Mirage 2000s in the French air force, six would be given to Ukraine.
France will on February 12 host a meeting with Ukraine, its main European allies, Britain and the United States to discuss how to strengthen support for Kyiv.