U.S. DEPARTMENT of  STATE   You are subscribed to Africa. Here is new content for this topic:   Remarks for Opening Session of the Africa Day Forum 06/01/2026 01:32 PM EDT Nick Checker, Deputy Assistant SecretaryBureau of African Affairs Washington, D.C. Hosted by the African Union Mission Remarks for Opening Session of the Africa Day Forum Remarks June 1, 2026 Thank you Ambassador Gaspar for organizing today’s forum. As you all know, this will be my last engagement as Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of African Affairs. As I conclude my tenure, I want to begin with appreciation for the professionalism and partnership of this diplomatic corps. Over this period, we have worked through a necessary shift away from inherited frameworks that too often viewed Africa through a development only lens, and toward a clearer, more disciplined focus on advancing concrete U.S. national interests—security, commercial, and migration—that is grounded the principle of reciprocity and mutual respect. That transition has not been rhetorical; it has required hard choices about priorities, resources, and outcomes. I am grateful for your role in helping drive that pivot in practice. It’s important to remember how far we’ve come and the imperative for the United States to fundamentally reset its paradigm for engagement with Africa. Over the last 30 years, we often chose to impose divisive ideology in place of strategy; imposed conditions and lectures where partners expected investment, trade, and infrastructure; slowed execution, complicated deals, and weakened trust with governments that prioritize sovereignty and development outcomes; and elevated values above results, even when outcomes on the ground moved in the opposite direction. The gap is stark: high-minded rhetoric, low conversion into stability, growth, or durable influence. By constantly promising sweeping change and frequently announcing new initiatives devoid of any resourcing, this policy led to apathy from the African continent and eroded the perception of the U.S.’s ability to follow through on its word. This is the risk of mismanaged expectations. What may seem harmless to D.C. and appeal to the Beltway pundits for moralistic reasons resulted in outcomes that made our words ring hollow to an entire continent. Every previous Administration has known fully that they were going to be unable to match their rhetoric with action. Nevertheless, they pressed forward with aspirational rhetoric devoid from the realities of implementation. Under President Trump and Secretary Rubio’s leadership, this Administration has responded with clarity: with a disciplined, pragmatic, and interest-driven strategy rooted in flexible realism. This is an approach of strategic economy that is modest in aims, clear in interests, disciplined about limits.  The Trump Administration is uniquely committed to Africa. This commitment is born out of a desire for mutually beneficial partnership and cultivation of true relationships–the first step of which is done by developing trust. We respect our African partners and therefore we do not feel the need to lie to them for our own moral purposes. Sovereignty This is why national sovereignty is at the core of the Trump Administration’s new approach. As Secretary Rubio has said, “the primacy of national interest governs our engagement with other states, and “diplomacy is defined by sober, pragmatic dialogue and guided by the axiom that rational global actors will act for the benefit of their people and their states … It means rejecting the arrogant paternalism of thinking we can or should change the customs or politics of foreign nations where there is not a direct benefit to doing so. It means dealing in the art of the possible and not wishing away constraints—whether they be natural, geographical, geopolitical, economic, or social.” It is this principle that has informed the Administration’s reengagement with the Sahel states and others that were isolated by the previous Administration. American foreign policy is strongest when it is disciplined—grounded in our own interests, not in the habit of moralizing the domestic politics of other nations. Combating Divisive Ideology That does not mean indifference. It does not mean looking away when vulnerable communities are pressured, discriminated against, or targeted. It recognizes that legitimacy abroad is not earned by lecturing, but by consistency in how we defend basic standards when they are genuinely at risk. This is why the United States is taking decisive action in response to the mass killings and violence against Christians by radical Islamic terrorists, Fulani ethnic militias, and other violent actors in Nigeria and beyond. The President has also decided to draw particular attention to South Africa, which like many complex democracies, carries its own internal tensions and historical burdens. The United States should not reflexively insert itself into every contested narrative. But neither should we pretend that all outcomes are morally equivalent when minorities face sustained persecution or when political grievances cross into something more serious. Unfortunately, Third-Worldist logic builds an incorrect and flawed moral map of the world: the “illegitimate settler,” the “pure native,” and resistance as inherently virtuous. Institutions inherited from empire are treated as suspect by definition—less to be reformed than dismantled. Politics become less about governing reality than adjudicating historical guilt. In that frame, liberation is never finished; it becomes a permanent lens for interpreting the present. Globally, groups from Israelis to Afrikaners are often flattened into the same symbolic category—reduced from complex societies into stand-ins for “settler” identity. That categorization erases internal diversity and turns nations into moral proxies rather than political communities. The result is predictable: external blame displaces internal accountability, and symbolism outruns substance. As Secretary Rubio warned in Munich, civilization is not sustained by moral abstractions—but by functioning states, institutions, and hard governance choices. A politics that prioritizes moral classification over state capacity doesn’t resolve history; it slowly weakens the ability to manage the present. We urge Africans to reject this radical line of thinking. Foreign Assistance With respect to foreign assistance, Secretary Rubio has been clear that American sovereign resources belong to the American people and must be spent to advance their interests and those of our nation. Nobody has a preordained right or claim to U.S. funding.  For too long, assistance justified on globalist or humanitarian bases benefitted groups unfriendly to the United States. Nolonger. Foreign assistance is not charity. It is a tool of American diplomacy and statecraft—and every American taxpayer dollar we spend must be directly justified on those terms. Security That thinking applies to security assistance. The United States has spent billions of dollars providing training and equipment to African militaries and their governments in open-ended interventions devoid of clear metrics for success, quick to downplay trade-offs, and often against inflated threats. We need to operate from a simple premise: not every problem is a U.S. problem, not all instability is strategically decisive. Our efforts in Africa are narrowly focused on preventing catastrophic attacks against the Homeland. Going forward, we will continue to prioritize enabling and cooperating with African nations with demonstrated commitment and capacity to take the lead in addressing their security gaps while advancing core U.S. national interests and encouraging burden shifting to other partners on the continent and elsewhere. Strategic Competition Much ink in Washington is spilled on the threat posed by China, Russia, and other actors. But absent a clear link to key national interests, our aim is to accept Africans strategic choice to hedge rather than engage in zero-sum competition everywhere. Our focus is on the American value proposition—reliability, transparency, and follow-through—that will win the day with predictable, transactional cooperation. Peace We are open to opportunities to negotiate settlements to ongoing conflicts. At his core, President Trump is a deal-maker with an agenda defined by realism. Some of President Trump’s biggest foreign policy wins came from throwing aside elite consensus wisdom and prior norms. You’ve seen a clear example of this with the signing of the Washington Accords between DRC and Rwanda in December and our effort to ensure that both sides are abiding by their commitments under the deal. You’ve also seen Senior Advisor Boulos’s concerted effort to end the devastating war in Sudan. Commercial Diplomacy Across Africa, durable peace requires more than ceasefires and political agreements. Economic integration, private investment, and opportunity can transform stability from a temporary condition into a self-reinforcing one, which is why our focus on critical minerals and infrastructure could not be more timely. We are in the midst of a fundamental change in the relationship between the United States and African countries, from one based on dependency towards one based on trade, investment, and mutually beneficial partnership in the service of our shared goals. This shift is consistent with what we hear from African leaders, businesses, and citizens, that what’s needed is investment, opportunity, and the ability to compete. We recognize the enormous and growing economic potential on the continent, in part driven by a populace that looks to represent a quarter of humanity in just over 20 years, with a projected purchasing power of more than $16 trillion. This will rival the economies of our largest global trading partners. Through our Commercial Diplomacy Strategy, we are: driving market reforms, because countries that reduce non-tariff barriers achieve stronger and more sustained economic growth; advancing commercially viable infrastructure, partnering with U.S. companies that set the global standard for quality and durability; redesigning diplomacy around business, with U.S. companies at the table and increasingly connected to African opportunities; and reforming our own system: aligning our tools behind U.S. strategic priorities while driving faster financing, more competitive terms, and tighter coordination across agencies. In particular, we are focusing our resources where American interests are most directly advanced: critical minerals, strategic infrastructure, and markets that offer genuine commercial opportunity for U.S. firms. And we are seeing success. Since the beginning of this administration, our embassies and Washington teams have directly supported more than 60 different deals worth more than 25 billion dollars. We have also sharpened our thinking about critical minerals and energy. The U.S. critical minerals strategy builds on the understanding that African governments are seeking a partner that delivers transparency, job creation, skills transfer, and long-term economic value. As that partner, we aim to ensure an increasing flow of critical minerals from Africa to the United States as part of secure, reliable supply chains. One specific area of collaboration with the African Union Commission is the Strategic Infrastructure and Investment Working Group, launched earlier this year by Deputy Secretary Landau and AU Commission Chair Youssouf. The working group reflects a shared recognition that infrastructure investments and transit routes are the backbone of Africa’s economic integration, industrialization, and competitiveness. I wish you all constructive discussions today. It has been the honor of a lifetime to lead the Africa Bureau these last six months, and I am deeply appreciative of your collaboration. The U.S. Government looks forward to working with you as we strengthen the U.S.-Africa partnership in the period ahead. Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe-All | Privacy Policy | Subscriber Help External links found in this content or on Department of State websites that go to non-Department websites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.  This email was sent to caterresearch9.news@blogger.com using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: U.S. Department of State · 2201 C Street NW · Washington, DC 20520