Credit: Gary Raynaldo / ©Diplomatic Times / U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. March 3, 2020 speaks on progress in U.S. – Africa Policy.
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy announced he will return to the State Department in the new President Trump administration for a temporary position he says “will be beyond just Africa.” Nagy, a career Foreign Service Officer, has spent more than 20 years in assignments across Africa. Nagy, who served as America’s top diplomat for Africa in the first Trump administration, made the announcement Thursday on the social media platform X formerly known as Twitter.
“Dear Friends, Adversaries, and Trolls – Looks like I’m going back to US State Dept on Monday in a position which will be beyond just Africa. So I’m stopping expressing my personal views until my temporary position finishes (probably a few months). God bless you all and back soon!”
Many observers are wondering what the second Trump administration will mean for the future of U.S-Africa relations. In an interview with the Voice of American after Trump was re-elected in November 2024, Nagy said he believes Africans should be optimistic.
“I don’t think people should worry about the slogan “America First” because that doesn’t mean “America only.” There are many areas where interests between the U.S. and Africa intersect. China, we very much see as a long-term existential threat, and so I think we’ll be a little bit more honest in saying that part of our Africa relations is about China. Then there’s the very important issue of critical minerals. Why should China monopolize all the critical minerals in Africa when it would do much better if Western, i.e., American companies were also involved? So, I think Africans should be optimistic — I think they’ll have a lot more deals and a lot fewer lectures,” Nagy told the Voice of America Nov. 28, 2024.
While serving as Trump’s top diplomat for Africa, Nagy stressed that the primary focus of the administration’s Africa strategy was to significantly increase trade and investment with the continent for growing its prosperity and for providing jobs for “Africa’s emerging youth tsunami.”
Speaking on Africa’s youth at a forum at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C. in March 2020, Nagy said: “To really create jobs in Africa, what you need is to get the medium and small U.S. businesses involved, because economically, they are the ones that create the most employment.”
Nagy was US Ambassador to Ethiopia from 1999-2002, a period which included the Ethio-Eritrean War.
