CSPAN - President Biden Meets with Angolan President
Aired: 2024-12-08
Duration: 06:54

[00:01:13]  Mr. President, thank you very much.
[00:01:15]  It's good to see you again, and thank you for having me here today.
[00:01:19]  I mean that sincerely.
[00:01:20]  I joked with you earlier when I said we Bidens are like poor relatives.
[00:01:26]  We show up when we're invited, stay longer than we should, eat all your food, and don't know when to go home.
[00:01:33]  But you've been very, very generous and hospitable.
[00:01:36]  Thank you.
[00:01:37]  I'm proud, excuse me, very proud to be the first American president to visit Angola.
[00:01:44]  And I'm deeply proud of everything we have done together to transform our partnership thus far.
[00:01:49]  There's so much ahead of us, so much we can do.
[00:01:52]  The results so far speak for themselves.
[00:01:55]  Building an ocean access railway, ocean to ocean access railway that's going to connect the continent from west to east for the first time in history.
[00:02:06]  Investing in solar energy projects can help Angola generate 75 % of its clean energy by next year.
[00:02:14]  By next year.
[00:02:16]  Upgrading internet and communications infrastructure to connect all of Angola's high -speed internet networks.
[00:02:23]  As we're doing that at home ourselves, I compare it to when Franklin Roosevelt took electricity to rural America.
[00:02:30]  It didn't exist in rural America.
[00:02:32]  The government provided it.
[00:02:34]  Well, it's hard to get by these days in business or ranching or anything else without access to the internet.
[00:02:42]  Knowing what's going on, when to sell your product and the like, it's critical.
[00:02:47]  And increasing our agricultural production so Angolans can feed themselves and, quite frankly, the rest of the world in making a profit doing it.
[00:02:59]  Providing work, providing opportunity, providing muscle to your economy.
[00:03:05]  And increased agricultural production so Angolans, as I said, can not only feed themselves, But it's hard for people in a country that only has the borders of the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean to understand that it's hard to get a product from one country to another than the badly needed agricultural products,
[00:03:24]  but you can't get there.
[00:03:25]  If you get there, you not only help those people, but you help yourself, and you grow your economy.
[00:03:31]  And you've heard me say it before, Mr. President, the United States is all in on Africa.
[00:03:39]  All in on Africa.
[00:03:42]  I think...
[00:03:43]  A testament to that assertion I've made to you when I saw you and I've made publicly before.
[00:03:49]  You've heard me say it before, but the United States is all in, all in Angola.
[00:03:54]  We've already, my administration alone, has invested over $3 billion in Angola thus far.
[00:04:03]  The future of the world is here, in Africa, in Angola.
[00:04:08]  So during this visit, I look forward to discussing how we keep ensuring...
[00:04:13]  democracy delivers for people, because if they don't think it's a democracy, they don't think they're in on a deal, they don't think they're part of it, and you've been working very hard to establish good democracy.
[00:04:24]  And uh and secondly, how can we help build strong ties between our nations and our businesses and our people?
[00:04:32]  There's a lot to say on all this.
[00:04:34]  I know we're prepared to.
[00:04:37]  I think we're well on our way to answering a lot of the questions, but I think You should understand the extent to which we're prepared to be engaged.
[00:04:46]  And as I said to the president, ours is not, we don't think because we're bigger and we're more powerful that we're smarter.
[00:04:58]  We don't think we have all the answers.
[00:05:00]  But we're prepared to hear your answers to the needs you have, particularly answers to international debt financing and a whole range of other things we're prepared to discuss.
[00:05:11]  I want to thank you very much for your personal welcome.
[00:05:14]  I want to thank all of your colleagues for treating us so well since we've been here.
[00:05:19]  And I mean it from the bottom of my heart.
[00:05:21]  The future of the world is in Africa.
[00:05:25]  That's not hyperbole.
[00:05:26]  It's going to be a billion people very shortly in this continent.
[00:05:30]  A very diverse continent.
[00:05:33]  And by another 20 years you'll be the largest country in the world.
[00:05:37]  Continent in the world.
[00:05:39]  And so we need you to succeed.
[00:05:43]  This is all selfless.
[00:05:45]  The more you succeed, the more we succeed, the more the world succeeds.
[00:05:49]  So thank you for being willing to have me, be willing to talk to me, and I look forward to a long relationship.
[00:05:55]  Thank you very much.
[00:06:40]  Our nation's original sin.
[00:06:47]  Original sin.
[00:06:48]  Bloody Civil War.
[00:06:51]  We're good to go.
[00:06:53]  We're good to go.