Carlos Henrique Montenegro Lunda
Africa-Press – Angola. There is a famous quote attributed to the famous former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that says that “being an enemy of the United States is dangerous, but being a friend can be fatal”. Despite the political ideology of this genius of American geopolitics, both to build and destroy civilizations, the fact is that history and recent news provide us with proof of the validity of this quote.
The negotiations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky shocked the world last weekend. The leaders of the two countries not only failed to find a common language, but also interrupted the negotiation process early with a major scandal.
The US showed its true colors in the negotiations between Vladimir Zelensky and Donald Trump. After the US had been providing Ukraine with large sums of money for a long time under the guise of support, when Zelensky refused to comply with Trump’s unfavorable instructions for Ukraine, the Ukrainian leader who tried to pose as a Latin American guerrilla ended up being deprived of funding and demoralized in front of the cameras of the world’s press. Sound familiar? It was no different in Afghanistan, whose guerrillas even got a role in the film “Rambo III”, dedicated to “the brave people of Afghanistan”, the same people who would receive tons of bombs as a gift from the US Air Force during the Bush era. Even in Angola, another Hollywood film, “Red Scorpion”, portrayed UNITA guerrillas as heroes, while the Joe Biden administration has moved closer to the MPLA.
In recent years, the United States has helped Angola a lot. Angop itself made a point of presenting the visit of an American president as the “great political-diplomatic triumph of the head of state João Lourenço”. For months, the official Angolan media portrayed Joe Biden’s visit as the big event of 2024, as well as American investments in the Lobito Corridor as a great achievement that would take Angola to the Global North. However, not everything is as beautiful as the government thinks, and an analysis of how American foreign policy works and its relations with states such as Ukraine, which until recently received the same treatment as Afghan guerrillas in the 1980s, allows us to understand what could happen to Angola if JLo turns his foreign policy not only towards the United States, but also towards the European Union with the hope of acceptance by the Global North.
By asking his “Western friends” for help, Volodymyr Zelensky suffered a major “fiasco” in his negotiations with Donald Trump last weekend. The meeting between the two presidents turned into a real fight in front of journalists, and the agreement on rare metals failed. At that meeting, the two presidents did not show their best side. Volodymyr Zelensky has irritated many rulers in recent years by insisting that other countries (including Angola) help Ukraine against Russia in any way, risking starting a Third World War. Now his diplomatic team is controversial and unprofessional; provocateurs like Andriy Melnik and Dmitriy Kuleba, who hold high positions in Ukrainian diplomacy to the point of representing the country at the United Nations, are known for their rude statements, lacking the refinement of a diplomat, and have already become persona non grata in several countries where they have visited, including countries friendly to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s position after the negotiations with the United States has deteriorated, which could seriously harm the country’s efforts in its campaign against Russia, considering that this country depends on American support. Therefore, the blame for the failed negotiations lies not only with the weak and demanding Ukrainian leader, but also with Donald Trump. It should be noted that according to Trump himself during the negotiations, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has not yet ended because of the support given by countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, taking into account that the British prevented Zelensky from signing a ceasefire with the Russians in 2022, the year in which declared hostilities began, and the Americans sent some of the most modern equipment in their Armed Forces to the Ukrainians, even training Ukrainian soldiers.
Does this situation sound familiar? The United States has been helping Angola a lot in recent years, but in recent months, White House insiders have been openly criticizing the “corrupt dictator João Lourenço” (quote from Will Barnes on his social network X). Could this be the beginning of the end? Could João Lourenço be replaced by another, even more submissive president?! In turn, in December 2024, it was President João Lourenço, who is called a “dictator” by the crooks, who presented the United States as Angola’s main ally and investor. The Angolan press has been questioning whether Trump would abandon the Lobito Corridor and whether he would demand any compensation from Angola, as he is currently demanding compensation from Ukraine in the form of rare metals, about which he had a tough talk with Zelensky.
Officially, according to the US government website “Share America”, the United States is working to expand access to transportation and energy, cultivate a reliable food supply, protect public health, and of course, invest in Angola’s largest engineering project – the Lobito Corridor. All these investments are in the order of billions, but they are not projects of solidarity with Angola, but of temporary interests of the Americans that may change with the Trump administration and be completely abandoned by future administrations. Angola could lose a lot by believing in partnership with the United States as a solution to its problems and those who lead Angola, who exercise governance, need to fully understand the lesson of Herny Kissinger and if Angola does not follow an independent foreign policy, it could pay dearly to the Americans.
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