VP Harris AFRICA WEB
Metadata
- VP Harris AFRICA WEB
- March 24, 2023
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: VP Harris – AFRICA HEADLINE: US Vice President to Tour Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia TEASER: Kamala Harris makes first visit to Africa, touting democracy, partnership and family ties PUBLISHED: 3/24/2023 at BYLINE: Anita Powell CONTRIBUTOR: DATELINE: Washington VIDEOGRAPHER: AP, AFP, Zoom, original VIDEO EDITOR: SCRIPT EDITORS: Jepsen, Holly Franko VIDEO SOURCE (S): AP, ZOOM (WITH LICENSE) PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __ TRT: 3:08 VID APPROVED BY: wpm TYPE: EDITOR NOTES: HFR 0700 Friday – I’ll voice this Friday morning)) ((INTRO:)) [[Vice President Kamala Harris will become the highest-ranking Biden administration official to visit the African continent when she begins a tour of Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia next week ((she lands in Ghana on Sunday)). Her office says she will work on strengthening partnerships, security and economic prosperity, and analysts say her mere presence – as the first female vice president who has ancestral ties to the continent – is significant in itself. VOA’s Anita Powell, who will be traveling with the vice president, reports from Washington. ]] ((Blinken at AU, AP-4424478; Blinken in Ethipoia AP-4424268)) ((NARRATOR)) After a wave of visits this year to the African continent by top U.S. officials, ((Harris recently, speaking behind a podium at event AP-4425685)) Vice President Kamala Harris steps up next. ((AFP Leaders summit; AFP-V000_333Z364)) The White House says this builds on the administration’s progress since last year’s U.S.-Africa leaders summit, where President Joe Biden pledged to work to strengthen ties with the continent. ((Jill Biden in Namibia, AFP-V000_339U7N9; Janet Yellen in Africa, AFP-V000_337J9BB)) ((Radio: Cameron Hudson is an analyst and consultant on African peace, security and governance issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies)) ((SOT, English, Zoom, from 0:56, file here https://app.frame.io/projects/ae30dd8f-b6c4-418a-b02d-530603115a58/06a0e052-4d1c-4cb2-bbac-195ce9912e65)) ((Cameron Hudson, Center for Strategic and International Studies)) ((courtesy Zoom)) “She's the fifth senior-level U.S. official to go to Africa. She will have covered, with her colleagues, nearly a quarter of the countries in Africa with personal visits just in the last three months. So it's an unprecedented amount of attention, and diplomacy, going towards Africa, more than we've ever seen from a previous U.S. administration. So I think that's the significance of it.” ((Harris taking oath of office, from 4:30 in AFP-V000_8Z93EH)) ((NARRATOR)) And Harris, the highest-ranking elected woman in U.S. history, ((Tanz president taking oath at 2:29AFP_V000_33AX9ZF )) will also meet with the continent’s only female head of state, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan. The White House says Harris will speak with the elected leaders of all three countries about their commitment to democracy – ((Broll of China projects in Africa, and Xi during his most recent meetings with Af leaders, AFP-V000_VID1230108_FR)) a way, Hudson says, Washington can distinguish itself. ((SOT, English, Zoom, from 5:30, https://app.frame.io/projects/ae30dd8f-b6c4-418a-b02d-530603115a58/06a0e052-4d1c-4cb2-bbac-195ce9912e65)) ((Cameron Hudson, Center for Strategic and International Studies)) ((courtesy Zoom)) “They're also all countries that have a very substantial relationship with China on the trade front, the investment front and now increasingly on the debt front. So you know, this is a place where Washington can come and really advocate for the kind of democratic values and try to shore up those values and partnerships with countries that like many other African countries, are, you know, working with a variety of powers.” ((Harris at Munich, AFP-V045_339G7HC)) ((NARRATOR)) Harris is expected to press African nations, many of which abstained from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a United Nations vote, to acknowledge Russia’s aggression. VOA asked National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby if the vice president would raise human rights concerns on her trip. ((MRT please pull from TUESDAY BRIEFING)) ((John Kirby, National Security Council)) “The vice president will, of course, raise human rights concerns everywhere she goes. That’s — that’s part and parcel of American leadership around the world. We’re not afraid. And, in fact, it’s a sign of — of how much we care about other nations and partnerships that we are able and willing to have those kinds of conversations.” ((NARRATOR)) Democracy campaigners say she should push democracy as well. ((Radio: David Carroll is director of the democracy program at the Carter Center, the foundation of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.)) ((SOT, English, Zoom, from 5:00 in track)) ((David Carroll, Carter Center)) ((courtesy, Zoom)) “It's important that that high level attention is brought to this issue, and I think the fact that the vice president and others, other senior leaders, will be deeply involved in these events around the globe and in Zambia is very good. And it's important and it's important to show that commitment and that sincerity and also the sincerity of purpose and that's where you know at least back again to being able to be honest about where we need to address our own shortfalls.” ((Harris as a baby with her South Indian mother, still, AFP-000_8VB9GF; Harris with her mother at graduation, AFP-000_8VB9G8)) ((NARRATOR)) And Harris wraps some family history into this visit. Her maternal grandfather, an Indian diplomat, worked with Zambia’s first post-independence leader. ((Harris with Biden in the oval – both are masked, AFP-V000_8ZT8L3)) Nearly 60 years later, his granddaughter – the most powerful woman to hold office in the U.S., ((KH at Nichols’ funeral, AFP-V000_338D2YR)) and first South Asian and Black woman to rise to such heights – will meet with Zambia’s president. ((Anita Powell, VOA News, Washington))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Embargo Date March 24, 2023 07:35 EDT
- Byline Anita Powell
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English