Biden’s tour of West Africa begins as another senior U.S. official is on a similar trip to the region.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday the US was committed to deeper ties with Africa despite global crises as he opened a four-country tour of the continent.

Blinken is touring four Atlantic coast democracies – Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola – as security deteriorates in the Sahel and doubts grow about a key U.S. base in neighboring, coup-hit Niger.

US President Joe Biden welcomed heads of state and government from Africa in 2022, showing renewed attention to the continent. But as promised, he didn’t travel to Africa last year.

Still, Blinken quoted Biden as promising, “We’re all in this when it comes to Africa.”

“Our future is interconnected, our prosperity is interconnected, and African voices are increasingly shaping, enlivening and leading the global conversation,” Blinken said as he opened the talks in Cape Verde.

“The United States is committed to deepening, strengthening and expanding partnerships across Africa,” Blinken said.

He called Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking archipelago of about 500,000 people that has cooperated with the U.S. on law enforcement and naval stops, a “beacon of stability” and a “strong, principled voice.”

Much of the continent was concerned about billions of dollars in Western aid to Ukraine, and Cape Verdean Prime Minister Jose Ulisses Correia e Silva told Blinken that his country “strongly condemns” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Silva also criticized the recent wave of coups in Africa, saying Cape Verde was “guided by the values ​​of liberal democracy.”

Blinken toured the port in the capital Praia, which was expanded as part of the nearly $150 million Cape Verde received from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which provides U.S. aid to countries that meet democratic standards.

The U.S. government agency said last month it would work with Cape Verde on a third package, and Silva invited the Peace Corps to return after a decade-long absence.

Later on Monday, Blinken will travel to Ivory Coast, where he will watch the host nation play Equatorial Guinea in the Africa Cup of Nations.

The game will be played at the 60,000-seat Olympic Stadium, built with support from China, whose Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited last week.

Alongside Russia, China – seen by the US as its biggest global rival – has rapidly expanded its influence in Africa in recent years.

While China has provided loans for infrastructure projects, Russia’s powerful and ruthless Wagner mercenary group has been deployed to Mali, the Central African Republic and reportedly Burkina Faso.

Last month, a delegation from Niger visited Moscow, whose military overthrew elected President Mohamed Bazoum last year months after a visit by Blinken intended to bolster him.

Niger has been the linchpin of U.S. efforts to counter armed groups that have devastated the Sahel. The US set up a $100 million base in the Nigerian desert city of Agadez to control a fleet of drones.

The government expelled troops from the former colonial power France.

While Niger has allowed the U.S. to retain its nearly 1,000 U.S. troops, Gen. James Hecker, the U.S. Air Force’s commander for Europe and Africa, said late last year that “several sites” elsewhere in West Africa were being discussed for a new drone base .

As Blinken opens his visit, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield is touring three other West African countries – Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia, where she is attending the presidential inauguration and overseeing a peaceful transition of power from a once turbulent one Nation.