President Biden arrived on Monday in Cape Verde, an island nation off the coast of Africa, for the first stop of the only trip to sub-Saharan Africa of his presidency, a journey shadowed by his decision to pardon his son of tax and gun convictions.
Air Force One touched down for refueling at Amílcar Cabral International Airport on the island of Sal on a bright, sunny morning, before continuing on to Angola, where the president will work to bolster American ties.
While waiting for the plane to be readied for the next leg of the flight, Mr. Biden met at an airport lounge with Ulisses Correia e Silva, the prime minister of Cabo Verde.
The president is scheduled to arrive by evening in Luanda, the Angolan capital, where he will visit a slavery museum and highlight a new $1 billion rail corridor as a primary example of his administration’s plan to help lift the region’s economy.
Mr. Biden had long promised to visit sub-Saharan Africa, but the trip was delayed until the final weeks of his presidency. He is the first American president to travel to the region since 2015.
Mr. Biden’s departure on what is the last announced overseas trip of his time in office came shortly after he issued a “full and unconditional” pardon to Hunter Biden, his 54-year-old son.
Hunter Biden was convicted this year of lying on a firearms application form and later pleaded guilty to failure to pay taxes. The president’s decision to pardon his son came despite repeated promises not to do so, and it drew criticism from Republicans and some Democrats for using his power to overturn the judicial process.
The president used his stop in Cape Verde to thank the island nation for its support of Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders. Mr. Biden did not speak to reporters traveling with him, but his staff issued a statement praising the country.
“Cabo Verde is a model of stable democratic governance and, according to Freedom House rankings, is the freest country in all of Africa,” the White House statement said, using the Portuguese-language name for the island. “Cabo Verde has been a consistent partner of the United States on global health, security, and other issues, and has also regularly condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
No sitting president has ever visited Angola, a longtime Portuguese colony that after winning independence in 1975 endured more than a quarter-century of civil war as a battleground in the Cold War conflict between the United States and Soviet Union.
In the two decades since the end of the war, Angola has built a more prosperous nation on the back of oil and diamond resources, and is now a center of the economic competition between the United States and China.
To demonstrate American commitment, Mr. Biden plans to announce a variety of investments in global health, agriculture and security cooperation during the trip.
He will celebrate a U.S. government initiative that has connected American and Angolan businesses for deals totaling $6.9 billion. But the life span of such commitments will also hinge on the will of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who once disparaged African nations with an expletive.
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