Summit
White House considering talks between Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping
The White House will consider arranging talks between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, as the two countries spar over issues including human rights, a top U.S. official said on Thursday. Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the two leaders are due to “take stock of where we are in the relationship.” Beijing fumed over a communique issued at Biden’s urging by the Group of Seven leaders on Sunday. It scolded the country over human rights in its Xinjiang region and Hong Kong while also demanding a full and thorough investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China. “Soon enough we will sit down to work out the right modality for the two presidents to engage,” Sullivan told reporters on a conference call. “It could be a phone call, it cou...
Joe Biden pointedly asks Vladimir Putin about cyberattacks at summit
U.S. President Joe Biden asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday how he would feel if someone carried out a ransomware attack on Russian oil pipelines, a pointed question during their summit that illustrated the breadth of their disagreements. The query referred to a cyberattack that closed the Colonial Pipeline Co system for several days in May, preventing millions of barrels of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from flowing to the U.S. East Coast from the Gulf Coast. Both leaders described their first summit in a lakeside Swiss villa as professional, rather than friendly, and said they agreed to hold lower-level talks on cybersecurity and arms control and to send their ambassadors back to their capitals. But there was no hiding their differences on issues such as human rights, wh...
Canada’s premier says he discussed border with Joe Biden, but no deal
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday he has spoken with U.S. President Joe Biden about how to lift pandemic-related border restrictions between the two countries but made clear no breakthrough has been achieved. U.S. and Canadian business leaders have voiced increasing concern about the ban on non-essential travel in light of COVID-19 that was first imposed in March 2020 and renewed on a monthly basis since then. The border measures do not affect trade flows. The border restrictions have choked off tourism between the two countries. Canadian businesses, especially airlines and those that depend on tourism, have been lobbying the Liberal government to relax the restrictions. Canada last week took a cautious first step, saying it was prepared to relax quarantine protocols fo...
UK: Some countries are using coronavirus vaccines as a geopolitical tool
British foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Friday there was no doubt some countries were using vaccines as a diplomatic tool to secure influence but Britain did not support so-called vaccine diplomacy. Raab was speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Cornwall, southwestern England, that was likely to be dominated by the West’s attempts to reassert its influence as the world looks to rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic. Western diplomats fear Russia and China are using their vaccines to gain influence across the world, especially in poorer countries that do not have their own production or the means to buy shots on the international market. Asked whether he was concerned that China and Russia could use vaccines in exchange for influence, Raab said: “There’s no doubt there’s...
Mali coup: Ghana to host Extraordinary ECOWAS Summit in Accra
Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has stated that the country will on Sunday, May 30, host an Extraordinary ECOWAS Summit in Accra. Addressing the press, Saturday, Mrs. Ayorkor Botchwey noted that the purpose of the meeting is to enable several heads of state, led by Chairman President Akufo-Addo to address the current political tensions in Mali. “In line with the ECOWAS protocol on democracy and good governance, the President of the Republic, Nana-Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo in his capacity as chair of the ECOWAS authority of heads of state and government, following due consultations with his peers decided to convene this extraordinary summit. “The purpose of the Summit is to enable the authority to deliberate and take consequential decisions on the evolving polit...
Russia calls U.S. decision to not rejoin Open Skies arms pact ‘a political mistake’
Russia on Friday called a U.S. decision to not rejoin the Open Skies arms control pact, which allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries, a political mistake that strikes a sour note ahead of a summit, Russian news agencies reported. The United States told Russia on Thursday it would not rejoin the pact, which Washington left in November, accusing Russia of violating it, something Moscow denied. The original decision to quit the pact was taken by the administration of then U.S. president Donald Trump and Moscow had hoped that Joe Biden would reverse that decision. Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, was quoted by the RIA news agency on Friday as saying that Moscow was disappointed but not entirely surprised by Biden’s decision. “It certainly does not make us ha...
President Buhari seeks international support for peaceful transition in Chad
President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday called on the international community to support a peaceful transition from military to democratic government in Chad. He made this known at a summit put together to discuss recent developments in Chad after the death of President Idris Deby last April. At the summit, Mr Buhari called on: “development partners and countries particularly France, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia; the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union, as well as other friendly and partner nations to support the transition framework put in place by Chad’s Transition Military Council led by General Mahamat Idris Deby.” ‘‘The need to support the Chadian government to effectively carry out its planned 18-month transition is sacrosanc...
President Buhari: Peace to Libya equals peace to West Africa
President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday received the Chairman, Presidential Council of Libya, H.E Mohammed Younis Menfi, at the State House, Abuja. Buhari, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, stressed that a stable or unstable Libya held implications for countries in the Lake Chad Basin area, including Nigeria. “Republics of Chad, and Niger, have extensive borders with Libya, and they are our immediate neighbours. Whatever affects them affects us. The stability or instability of Libya will directly affect us,” he said. The President further stressed that the security of Nigeria was number one priority to him, noting that, “Unless a country or institution is secured, there’s no way you can efficiently manage it.” Buhari said he was happy that t...
President Buhari presides over extraordinary summit of Lake Chad Basin Commission
President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an extraordinary summit of Heads of State and Government of Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. Newsmen report that other sub-regional leaders participating in the summit include the Presidents of Niger Republic, Mohamed Bazoum and Central African Republic, Faustin Touadera. Others are Mahamat Idriss Deby, President of the Transitional Military Council of the Republic of Chad, while Cameroon’s President Paul Bryan, was represented at the meeting. Other participants at the summit include representatives of Mohamed Al-Menfi, Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya, and the Sudanese President. Newsmen report that the leaders would be discussing the growing security threats in Sahel and Lake Chad region, politica...
Fury over Belarus airliner ‘hijack’ set to dominate EU summit
Fury over the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Belarus has upended the agenda of a European Union summit dinner on Monday, where leaders were due to discuss relations with Russia and Britain but will now also consider punitive steps against Minsk. Belarusian authorities scrambled a fighter jet and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force the civilian aircraft to land on Sunday and then detained an opposition-minded journalist who was among the passengers on board. The diversion of a plane owned by an EU company that was flying between two EU capitals was “an inadmissible step”, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said, and it would be raised at the summit. “The EU will consider the consequences of this action, including taking measures against those responsible,” Josep Bor...
France, African leaders push to redirect $100 billion in IMF SDR reserves by October
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday a summit in Paris on Africa financing had agreed to work towards persuading rich nations by October to reallocate $100 billion in IMF special drawing rights monetary reserves to African states. Impoverished African economies must not be left behind in the post-pandemic economic recovery and a substantial financial package is needed to provide much-needed economic stimulus, African and European leaders concluded at a summit in Paris. In the immediate term, that meant accelerating the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and creating the fiscal breathing room for African nations, which will face a spending shortfall of some $285 billion over the next two years, the summit communique showed. The communique set out a two-pronged response based on addressing...
Anambra guber: I’m not President Buhari’s anointed aspirant – Dozie Madu
An All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirant for the forthcoming Anambra State governorship election, Hon Dozie Madu, has dismissed speculations that he has been anointed by President Muhammadu Buhari. Speaking after picking the declaration of interest and nomination form at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja on Monday, he said that he is comfortable with any mode of primaries approved by the party’s national leadership. Asked to substantiate the claims that he is anointed by the President, he said: ‘I don’t understand what you mean. How can the President give a governorship aspirant a ticket? It is the people, I disagree with you, it is false. If you look at my dossier, you should know that I can’t involve myself in this kind of thing.’ On how he can do better compared to other former g...
