LUANDA, Angola, Dec 3, (AP): Joe Biden is using the first visit to Angola by a US president to promote Washington's hefty modern investments in the sub-Saharan Africa nation and to see a slavery museum where he'll acknowledge how the trafficking of human beings once linked the two nations' economies. A centerpiece of his trip is showcasing the US commitment of $3 billion to the Lobito Corridor, a railway redevelopment linking Zambia, Congo and Angola that is meant to make it far easier to move raw materials around the continent and for export.

The project also has drawn financing from the European Union, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, a Western-led private consortium and African banks. The project aims to advance the US presence in a region rich in the critical minerals used in batteries for electric vehicles, electronic devices and clean energy technologies and to counter China's heavy investments in mining and processing African minerals.

The U.S. has for years built relations in Africa through trade, security and humanitarian aid. The 800-mile (1,300-kilometer) railway upgrade is a different move and has shades of China’s Belt and Road foreign infrastructure strategy in Africa and other parts of the world. Biden is set to fly to the Angolan port city of Lobito on Wednesday for a firsthand look at the corridor.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the Biden administration "has absolutely transformed” U.S.-Africa relations and that the corridor's full completion is "going to take years but there’s already been a lot of work put in.” That means much of it may fall to Biden's successor, Republican Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan 20.

Asked whether the project could proceed without future support from Trump, Kirby said it was "our fervent hope that as the new team comes in and takes a look at this that they see the value too, that they see how it will help drive a more secure, more prosperous, more economically stable continent.” Kirby, speaking aboard Air Force One as Biden flew to Angola, said that the corridor was about more than simply Washington trying to outpace Beijing geopolitically.