Dozens of African leaders are set to attend a major gathering hosted this month by the White House, but so far they shouldn’t expect a one-on-one meeting with President Joe Biden.
Two U.S. officials said that the president isn’t currently scheduled to hold a bilateral session with a single African leader, even as the three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit is set to begin on Dec. 13.
While such meetings could be organized in the coming days, including in less formal chats known as “pull-asides,” the lack of concrete plans stands in stark contrast to how the Biden administration has put together other gatherings, former U.S. officials say. It also could lead African leaders traveling thousands of miles to further conclude that the United States doesn’t care about their countries as much as China does — and that it prefers to treat them as a bloc instead of individual governments.