Yoopya with Reuters
ESPARGOS, Cape Verde, Dec 2 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden did not answer reporters’ questions on the granting of a pardon to his son Hunter Biden when he landed in Cape Verde for a brief stopover on his way to Angola.
Joe Biden, whose term in office finishes in January, flew out of Washington shortly after pardoning Hunter, who had pleaded guilty to tax violations and been convicted on firearms-related charges.
The president did not respond to questions on the issue from reporters on the tarmac at Amilcar Cabral International Airport.
He was scheduled to hold a meeting with the island nation’s Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva, who greeted him at the airport.
The White House hailed Cape Verde as a “model of stable democratic governance” and said it had been a consistent partner of the United States on global health, security, and other issues.
Biden, making his only visit to sub-Saharan Africa as U.S. president, was scheduled to fly out of Cape Verde shortly after his meeting bound for the Angolan capital Luanda, where he will focus on a U.S.-backed railway project that aims to divert critical minerals away from China.
The project, partly funded with a U.S. loan, links the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean, offering a fast and efficient route for exports to the West.
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Angus MacSwan