US President Joe Biden rolled out the red carpet Thursday for his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto, unveiling plans during a lavish state visit to name Kenya a major non-NATO ally as Washington competes for influence on the continent against Moscow and Beijing.
Kenya will become the first sub-Saharan African nation to receive the designation, which is currently held by another 18 countries including Ukraine and boosts military and diplomatic links, although without a formal security pact.
The visit — including a joint press conference and a luxurious White House dinner — comes as the United States and ally France are on the back foot in Africa, where massive Chinese investments and aggressive use by Russia of shadowy paramilitary groups are changing the geopolitical balance.
Greeting Ruto earlier in front of a colourful honor guard on the White House South Lawn, Biden emphasized that the two countries are “united by the same democratic values.”
“We are stronger and the world is safer when Kenya and the United States work together,” Biden said, as a light rain fell.
He hailed the East African nation’s role in fighting the Islamic State extremist group and Al-Shabaab jihadists in neighboring Somalia.
Ruto, who also underlined Kenya’s democratic record, said he would discuss climate change, debt distress and East African security with Biden.
“I am confident, Mr President, that the partnership of the United States and Kenya will give us the solutions that the world so seriously needs,” he said.
The two leaders later said in a joint statement that Biden “announced his intent to designate Kenya as a major non-NATO ally.”
“This is a powerful symbol of the close relationship our two countries share,” Biden and Ruto said in the statement.
Talks in the Oval Office also focused on Kenya’s leadership of an upcoming international police mission to Haiti, where months of gang violence and political chaos have left the tiny Caribbean nation in a humanitarian crisis.
“Democracy is obviously on the back foot globally and we see Kenya as an important, stable democracy in East Africa,” said a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.