John Cornyn To Experts: What Would A 'Successful Regional Strategy' In East Africa Look Like For US?

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During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last month, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) asked experts what the United States' regional strategy in East Africa should look like.

Transcript

00:00Senator Corden. Thank you for being here. I think we all agree that Africa is a

00:07important place and that we are not doing everything that we should do or

00:15might do in order to influence the direction of that of that continent. I do

00:21take exception to some of my colleagues statements about the the previous let's

00:28say the status quo ante with a lot of money being spent in disjointed wasteful

00:35and unfocused ways by the federal government and obviously changing that

00:40is disruptive and there's a lot of programs that I think particularly

00:44PEPFAR which have been particularly important in Africa in terms of our soft

00:50power and saving lives and so can I continue obviously to support that but

00:57it seems to me we lack a coherent strategy and I'm not sure that I know the

01:03administration is working on some targeted projects for example the DRC on the

01:09critical minerals front and others but I my visit to Kenya, Angola and the DRC

01:20last August just I was struck just by not only the magnitude of the challenge but

01:26how how we seem to black any particular strategy to deal with making it any

01:32different than it is now so maybe both of you if I take take it in turn please what

01:39would be a successful region regional strategy in East Africa look like for the

01:45United States that doesn't necessarily have to all emanate from the White House

01:48Congress can begin that conversation what would that look like yeah thank you

02:00senator I think it's it's important first to ensure that any regional

02:06strategies integrated into a broader continental strategy and then and then

02:11global strategy but as far as the region specifically the u.s. needs to

02:17determine exactly what its interests are what its goals are and how I can get

02:22there that that all seems obvious it seems pretty fundamental yeah but one of

02:25the things where our goal is be to stop the Russians and the Chinese from

02:31essentially pre-empting us and pushing us out in terms of our influence but go

02:37ahead absolutely so I reference the potential Russian base really in in Port

02:43Sudan that would be massively problematic we already have the the Chinese base in

02:47Djibouti as as we've discussed so I think again I'm a big believer in

02:53commercial engagement I think the US government and the US Congress can help

02:58streamline the work of organizations like like the DFC and Ex-Im Bank make them

03:04more fit for purpose they're too slow they're too bureaucratic and then make

03:10that really a this commercial engagements the centerpiece of the value

03:16proposition that the United States brings to these countries I also think it

03:19should determine which countries it can actually achieve things with there are

03:25just some country or some governments on the continent that are so hostile and so

03:30frankly inept that it's very hard to determine how the US could ever actually

03:35achieve much of anything with them so I would you know some specific areas you

03:43could talk about critical minerals EAC does have such things I know that

03:48critical minerals is already a cliche to talk about but it is a reality for the

03:52United States and Africa is not just a cliche yeah it's it's a real thing there's a

03:57reason everybody talks about it so it'll have Africa will have to be part of the

04:00solution for the United States the US needs to figure out how to support its

04:04companies it should work with the companies of allied countries because we

04:08have very few mining companies anymore in this country so but the Australians the

04:13Canadians they have huge mining companies and look for possibilities there

04:18they should also work closely with with other allied countries on financing

04:22arrangements and take a much more systematic and harmonized approach with

04:27allies to these regions to focus on the core interests of the United States

04:32which again would be security and then some of these economic issues

04:36Ambassador thank you and I think you know particularly for the horn it it is

04:44really important to integrate what we're trying to accomplish in Africa with a

04:49strategy that looks at the other side of the Red Sea so this is broadly what we

04:55need to do is stop treating Africa like an extra credit project in foreign policy

04:59and make it part of the core curriculum and integrate it into the way we think

05:03about achieving US interests globally and and I think that you know more

05:09engagement as Senator Kuhn said a focus on peace and conflict prevention

05:14because the conflicts in Africa provide opportunities particularly to Russia

05:19Russia and to various criminal networks terrorists and otherwise that this is

05:25not in our interest commercial deals yes but making sure the deals don't just

05:29benefit a set of elites at the top but our deals that we can talk about

05:35benefiting both sides of the Atlantic in a way that addresses some of these job

05:43creation issues I see my time is up

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