President Joe Biden said he would help Africa “build back better” in a second term, if reelected, during an interview on Tuesday.
A Time reporter asked Biden, “If you do win in November, Mr. President, with a mandate to continue your approach to foreign policy, what would your goals be in the second term?”
Biden said, in addition to building NATO “both politically and economically,” he is “desperately focused on making sure that we deal with the…what they are calling the south now.”
“There are going to be a billion people in Africa in the next several years. We have to, we have to be a catalyst for change for the benefit, for the, for the better, we have to help them build back better, we have to help them,” he said.
He also said he wanted to build a railroad across the African continent.
“There’s so much opportunity in Africa. And we have to work it,” he said.
Biden’s promise comes as Niger and Chad have kicked out or are in the process of kicking out U.S. troops from their countries, as they lean toward Russia and China.
It also comes after the Biden administration spent $320 million of American taxpayer money to build a temporary pier to Gaza that broke apart in less than two weeks. It was then dismantled and is being repaired before it can be reinstalled.