Even within the waning days of his presidency and 1000’s of miles from dwelling, U.S. President Joe Biden is discovering methods to have a good time trains.

Biden is utilizing his third and last day in Angola to showcase the Lobito Hall railway, the place the U.S. and key allies are investing closely to refurbish 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) of practice strains in Zambia, Congo and Angola.

The challenge goals to advance the U.S. presence in a area wealthy in cobalt, copper and different important minerals utilized in batteries for electrical automobiles, digital gadgets and clear vitality applied sciences. By the top of the last decade, the rail line may even go a great distance towards linking southern Africa’s western coast with the continent’s japanese edge.

“I’m most likely probably the most pro-rail man in America,” Biden, the primary U.S. president to go to Angola, stated throughout a speech Tuesday night.

Biden has lengthy had the nickname Amtrak Joe for the 36 years he spent commuting by U.S. practice from his dwelling in Delaware to Washington whereas within the Senate. He stated the Lobito Hall constituted the most important U.S. funding in a practice challenge outdoors the nation.

On Wednesday, Biden will fly from the capital of Luanda to Lobito on Africa’s western coast to tour port services with Angolan President João Lourenço, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Tanzanian Vice President Philip Mpango.

The leaders additionally plan to fulfill with representatives from corporations that stand to profit from the hall challenge, together with a telecommunication agency increasing cell service within the area, a food-production agency and Acrow Bridge, a Pennsylvania firm that makes prefabricated metal bridges and has a contract to ship practically 200 to Angola.

The Biden administration says the hall will assist enterprise pursuits and counter China‘s rising affect in Africa — along with satisfying a president obsessive about using the rails.

In Lobito, Biden will announce $600 million in new U.S. funding for tasks related to the hall, which has additionally drawn financing from the European Union, the Group of Seven main industrialized nations, a Western-led personal consortium and African banks.

The administration says it presently can take cargo a great deal of supplies about 45 days to get from japanese Congo or Zambia to the market, and often includes going by truck to South Africa. Take a look at masses run utilizing the brand new rail hall made the identical journey in round 40 to 50 hours.

China, in the meantime, already has heavy investments in mining and processing African minerals, and has used its Belt and Street Initiative infrastructure technique to advertise its financial and political affect all over the world.

In September, China stated it had signed a cope with Tanzania and Zambia to revamp a separate railway line going east from Zambia to Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam on the east coast of Africa.

The international locations had beforehand labored collectively to construct the railway line within the Seventies, however it fell into disrepair. China’s transfer to renovate it — introduced on the sidelines of this yr’s China-Africa discussion board — is seen by some analysts because the Chinese language response to the Lobito Hall.

A senior U.S. administration official referred to as the Lobito Hall the guts of competing with China, not as a political adversary however from a enterprise standpoint.

The concept is, somewhat than pumping in easy support, Washington will try to develop U.S. affect by selling tasks that may spark funding and due to this fact assist communities and international locations over the lengthy haul. The Lobito Hall has change into a mannequin strategy that the U.S. is trying to replicate in different components of the world, stated the official, who briefed reporters throughout Biden’s Angola go to on situation of anonymity to supply challenge particulars that have not but been made public.

The hall will not be accomplished for years, that means a lot of the continued work would come in the course of the administration of Republican Donald Trump, who takes workplace Jan. 20. The Biden White Home says that Republicans in Congress and elsewhere have supported previous efforts to advertise African enterprise pursuits by means of focused investments and that such initiatives have appealed to Trump and his key advisers previously.

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Related Press author Gerald Imray in Cape City, South Africa, contributed to this report.