Breakfast with Kamala Harris and lobbying over Russia trade at dinner: Ramaphosa's US schedule

Trade and the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict are expected to top President Cyril Ramaphosa's agenda on Friday in Washington DC, where he has been invited to hold talks with US President Joe Biden at the White House.

Issues like shared priorities, such as trade, investment, infrastructure, climate and energy, health and “pressing regional and global challenges” will be high on the agenda, a senior US administration official has said.

Ramaphosa is set to start his morning with breakfast at the residence of US Vice-President Kamala Harris, which officials have stressed is a courtesy call and not an official meeting, as protocol is for government leaders only to meet with their peers during official visits like this one.

From the South African side, concern about intentions by the US to extend sanctions against Russia to those who continue to trade with that country will be high on the agenda.

There will be fierce lobbying in this regard from Ramaphosa's side at a dinner on Friday night hosted by SA's ambassador to the US, Nomaindia Mfeketo.

A number of senators have been invited ahead of an expected US Senate vote on the Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act, which passed the US Congress in April with a large majority. Its next step to becoming law is to pass through Senate.

SA government officials have previously expressed the fear that this bill would punish SA and other African countries for choosing to continue trading with Russia.

The dinner “is important because this is where we want to advocate for a rethink on that act”, Ramaphosa's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told journalists in a briefing at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington DC on Thursday evening.

Among the dozen or so invitees expected to attend the dinner are:

• US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Molly Phee;
• chair of the US House foreign affairs committee, Gregory Meeks;
• vice-chair Tom Malinowski;
• chair of the Senate foreign relations committee subcommittee on African affairs, Chris Coons; and
• the US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety.

Brigety recently started his posting in SA, only handing his credentials to Ramaphosa in Pretoria last month.

Shortly before he left to attend Ramaphosa's working visit to Washington, Brigety announced that the US was addressing the paralysing backlog of appointments for visa applications by adding 10,000 more interview slots by Christmas. South Africans needing visas to visit the US have been waiting months for the interview that is needed to apply for such a visa.

Ramaphosa's visit follows on the heels of US secretary of state Antony Blinken's launch of his country's strategy for sub-Saharan Africa in Pretoria last month, followed by visits to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. Nearly 50 US government officials and experts accompanied Blinken to meet with their South African counterparts.

The senior US administration official told journalists in a briefing before Ramaphosa's visit that the US administration “has really kicked into high gear in terms of our engagement with the continent” in recent weeks and months.

US Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power has, for example, travelled to Kenya and Somalia in June, followed by a visit to Uganda and Ghana by US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

There was also an African Leader Summit during the Corporate Council on Africa event in Morocco last month, where it was announced that there will be another US-Africa Leaders' summit in Washington, DC at the end of the year. The last one was in 2014 under the administration of former president, Barack Obama.

The US has been trying to assert its power in the continent as the influence of other powers, notably Russia and China, has been growing and has included regular summits between these two powers and the continent.

Ramaphosa is expected to spend Saturday in Washington DC on undisclosed business before jetting off to London, where he will attend a programme before the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth. It is not yet clear whether he will return to the US on Tuesday for the first full in-person session of the UN General Assembly in New York City. 

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