Nine presidents of the United States have made presidential visits to North Africa. The first trips by a sitting president to countries in North Africa were those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and were an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. Of the five countries in the region, only Libya has not yet been visited by an American president.
| President | Dates | Country or territory | Locations | Key details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | January 14–25, 1943 |  Morocco | Casablanca | Attended Casablanca Conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. [1] |
| November 20–21, 1943 |  French Algeria | Oran | Disembarked. [1] | |
| November 21–22, 1943 |  Tunisia | Tunis | Overnight stop. [1] | |
| November 22–26, 1943 |  Egypt | Cairo | Attended First Cairo Conference with British Prime Minister Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek. [1] | |
| December 2–7, 1943 | Attended Second Cairo Conference with British Prime Minister Churchill and Turkish President İsmet İnönü. [1] | |||
| December 7–9, 1943 | Tunisia | Tunis | Conferred with General Dwight Eisenhower. [1] | |
| February 13–15, 1945 | Egypt | Great Bitter Lake, Suez Canal, Alexandria | Met with King Farouk, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, Saudi Arabian King Ibn Saud, and British Prime Minister Churchill. [1] | |
| February 18, 1945 | French Algeria | Algiers | Briefed U.S. Ambassadors to the United Kingdom, France, and Italy on the Yalta Conference. [1] | |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | December 17, 1959 | Tunisia | Tunis | Met with President Habib Bourguiba. [2] |
| December 22, 1959 | Morocco | Casablanca | Met with King Mohammed V. [2] | |
| Richard M. Nixon | June 12–14, 1974 |  Egypt | Cairo, Alexandria | Met with President Anwar Sadat. [3] |
| Jimmy Carter | January 4, 1978 | Aswan | Met with President Sadat and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. [4] | |
| March 7–10, 1979 | Cairo, Alexandria, Giza | State visit; met with President Sadat and addressed the People's Assembly. [4] | ||
| March 13, 1979 | Cairo | Met with President Sadat. [4] | ||
| George H. W. Bush | November 22–23, 1990 | Discussed the Persian Gulf crisis with President Hosni Mubarak. [5] | ||
| Bill Clinton | October 25–26, 1994 | Met with President Mubarak and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat. [6] | ||
| March 13, 1996 | Sharm el-Sheikh | Attended the Summit of the Peacemakers. [6] | ||
| July 25, 1999 | Morocco | Rabat | Attended the funeral of King Hassan II; met with Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. [6] | |
| August 29, 2000 | Egypt | Cairo | Briefed President Mubarak on the Middle East Peace Process. [6] | |
| October 16–17, 2000 | Sharm el-Sheikh | Attended Israeli-Palestinian Summit Meeting. [6] | ||
| George W. Bush | June 2–3, 2003 | Attended "Red Sea Summit" with the leaders of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, and with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. [7] | ||
| January 16, 2008 | Met with President Mubarak. [7] | |||
| May 17–18, 2008 | Met with President Mubarak, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Palestinian National Authority President Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. Addressed the World Economic Forum. [7] | |||
| Barack Obama | June 4, 2009 | Cairo | Met with President Mubarak and delivered and address at Cairo University. [8] | |
| Joe Biden | November 11, 2022 | Sharm el-Sheikh | Met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Attended the COP27 at Tonino Lamborghini International Convention Center. [9] |
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There have been 41 United States presidential visits to Canada by 14 presidents over the past century. As the U.S. president is both head of state and head of government, these visits have taken many forms, ranging from formal state visits to official visits, working visits, or private visits.
Fifteen presidents of the United States have made thirty-four presidential visits to Mexico. The first visit by an incumbent president to Mexico was made in 1909 by William Howard Taft. It was only the second time in U.S. history that a president left the country while in office.
Seven United States presidents have made presidential visits to Sub-Saharan Africa. The first was an offshoot of Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretive World War II trip to French Morocco for the Casablanca Conference. Of the 46 African nations identified as sub-Saharan by the United Nations, 16 have been visited by an American president.
On 6 October 1981, Field Marshal Anwar Sadat, the 3rd President of Egypt, was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Operation Badr, during which the Egyptian Army had crossed the Suez Canal and taken back the Sinai Peninsula from Israel at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War. The assassination was undertaken by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Although the motive has been debated, Sadat's assassination likely stemmed from Islamists who opposed Sadat's peace initiative with Israel and the United States relating to the Camp David Accords.
Ten United States presidents have made presidential visits to Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. The first trip by an incumbent president to Eastern Europe was made by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, to the Soviet Union, and was an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. The first trip by an incumbent president to Northern Asia was made by Gerald Ford in 1974, also to the Soviet Union, and was an offshoot of U.S.–Soviet Détente during the Cold War. The first presidential visits to other Eastern European countries occurred during this era of easing geo-political tensions as well.
Eleven United States presidents and three presidents-elect have made thirty-four presidential visits to Central America. The first visit by an incumbent president to a country in Central America was made in 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt. The trip, to Panama, was the first international presidential trip in U.S. history, and signaled the start of a new era in how presidents conducted diplomatic relations with other countries. In 1928, Herbert Hoover, during the time when he was president-elect, visited the region during his historic "good will" trip, to Central and South America.
Ten United States presidents have made presidential visits to the Middle East. The first trips by an incumbent president to countries in the Middle East were those by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and were an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. To date, 16 visits have been made to Egypt, 12 to Saudi Arabia, 11 to Israel, six to both Iraq, Jordan and Turkey, four to Iran, three to the Palestinian Territories, two to both Kuwait and Syria, one to Bahrain, Georgia, Oman, Qatar, and to the United Arab Emirates. No incumbent American president has yet visited Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Lebanon, and Yemen.
Nine United States presidents and one president-elect have made presidential visits to the Caribbean since 1928. Franklin D. Roosevelt made the most trips to the Caribbean islands (14), either for vacation or while involved with Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II. Of the 13 sovereign countries in the region, four—Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—have not as of yet been visited by an American president.
Twelve United States presidents have made presidential visits to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The first visit by an incumbent president to the United Kingdom was made in December 1918 by Woodrow Wilson, and was an offshoot of American diplomatic interactions with the Principal Allied Powers at the conclusion of World War I prior to the Paris Peace Conference. The first visit by an incumbent president to the island of Ireland was made in June 1963 by John F. Kennedy when he visited the Republic of Ireland. To date, 40 visits have been made to the United Kingdom and 11 to Ireland.
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Ten United States presidents have made presidential visits to East Asia. The first presidential trip to a country in East Asia was made by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. Since then, all presidents, except John F. Kennedy, have traveled to one or more nations in the region while in office.
Thirteen United States presidents have made presidential visits to Southern Europe. Woodrow Wilson became the first incumbent president to visit a Southern European country in January 1919 in the aftermath of World War I. Visits occurring during the 1940s through 1980s were offshoots of American diplomatic interactions during World War II and then the Cold War.
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