WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement after President Trump's Oval Office meeting with South African President Ramaphosa:
"The only beneficiaries of President Trump’s meeting with President Ramaphosa are China and Russia, who are eagerly courting South Africa as Trump’s ham-handed diplomacy pushes the country further away from the United States. As the United States' largest trading partner in Africa, South Africa holds great opportunity and prosperity for American companies and individuals. Through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), South Africa enjoyed a robust trading relationship with the U.S., boosting economic growth between our two nations. The President’s display in the Oval Office today brings us no closer to furthering this critical partnership and instead takes us decades back both in the rhetoric that was used and in opportunities lost.
"We are further set back by the U.S. refusing to participate in the G20 in South Africa, the first for an African nation. Baffling decisions like resettling Afrikaners in our country – while refusing to resettle refugee populations in dire need, including Afghans, Burmese Rohingya and Sudanese – also undermines America’s diplomacy and the ability to form the global partnerships needed to compete with China and other adversaries. Across sub-Saharan Africa, Russia and China are doubling down on existing partnerships and making new inroads as America retreats and decimates its soft power through cuts to life-saving assistance programs and the potential closure of embassies and consulates. The end result is fewer allies and partners, more instability and an isolated America."
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