Ahead of the signing of a peace deal on 27 June between Congo-Kinshasa and Rwanda, mediated by Washington and premised on joint mining and processing operations, the United States-Africa business summit in Luanda this week has been a shop window for commercial diplomacy under the Trump administration.

African officials criticised the precipitate cuts in development aid and climate finance, along with higher tariffs and new visa restrictions. But others argue that a more transactional strategy could encourage more US capital to flow into Africa to secure critical minerals, set up regional processing and invest in the nascent tech sector.

US officials used the summit to show Washington’s commitment to the Lobito Corridor, which links the copper fields of Congo-K and Zambia to Angola’s coast. US investor Hydro-Link is building a 1,150-kilometre electricity transmission line, and other companies plan telecommunications and farming projects along the route. ‘It is time to replace the logic of aid with the logic of investment and trade,’ Angola’s President João Lourenço told delegates. He urged US companies to look beyond oil and mining and instead invest in manufacturing, shipbuilding, cement and steel production. Can Lobito break the mould? So far European and US investors in the project have been more concerned about extracting critical minerals than developing facilities to refine and process them.