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Zmeselo
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Posts: 33606
Joined: 30 Jul 2010, 20:43

QiQ QiQ QiQ.. they aren't worthy to meet "daddy"!

Post by Zmeselo » 05 Dec 2022, 12:09



No one-on-ones yet scheduled between Biden and African leaders heading to D.C.

A lack of bilateral meetings is likely to frustrate visiting leaders eager for time with the U.S. president.


While meetings could be organized in the coming days, the lack of concrete plans stands in stark contrast to how the Biden administration has put together other gatherings. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

By ALEXANDER WARD, NAHAL TOOSI and PHELIM KINE

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/0 ... c-00071954

12/02/2022

Dozens of African leaders are set to attend a major gathering hosted this month by the White House, but so far they shouldn’t expect a one-on-one meeting with President Joe Biden.

Two U.S. officials said that the president isn’t currently scheduled to hold a bilateral session with a single African leader, even as the three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit https://www.state.gov/africasummit/ is set to begin on Dec. 13.

While such meetings could be organized in the coming days, including in less formal chats known as “pull-asides,” the lack of concrete plans stands in stark contrast to how the Biden administration has put together other gatherings, former U.S. officials say. It also could lead African leaders traveling thousands of miles to further conclude that the United States doesn’t care about their countries as much as China does — and that it prefers to treat them as a bloc instead of individual governments.
We would not organize a summit with any other region of the world like this — and, as far as I can tell, have not,
said J. Peter Pham, who was a top State Department official focused on Africa in the Trump administration, citing the Biden team’s previous summits with Latin American https://br.usembassy.gov/readout-of-the ... -americas/ and Asian leaders.

A person familiar with the administration’s discussions said some in the White House were concerned that scheduling any bilateral sessions between Biden and his African counterparts would create friction, since it wasn’t possible logistically to accommodate all requests. Around 50 leaders have been invited, and many would like to show audiences back home that they have a connection with the U.S. president.

That person, like some others quoted in this story, requested anonymity to speak about sensitive internal White House deliberations.

Calls and emails to several African embassies in Washington were not returned. But Burundi’s ambassador to the United States, Jean de Dieu Ndikumana, said in a brief phone conversation that African delegations remain “hopeful” that the White House will ultimately accommodate requests for bilateral meetings, even if they were short ones. :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:

The African leaders are
crossing the ocean to come here,
the envoy emphasized.

This is the second such summit between a U.S. president and African leaders, and much of it will feature think-tank-like events on climate change, technology and trade at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center, but not every leader will have the opportunity to speak on a panel. At this point, the only real engagement they’re slated to have with Biden is during a leader-only dinner and group photo.

The first of these U.S.-based summits was held in 2014 during President Barack Obama’s tenure. Obama, too, didn’t pre-schedule bilateral sessions https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/th ... ers-summit during the gathering because of the same logistical hurdles, drawing questions about his commitment https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/07/09/ha ... ca-summit/ to the continent. It was not immediately clear if Obama ultimately sat down for any bilateral sessions, and several officials who worked for him at the time either didn’t recall or could not be reached.

The Biden administration is upfront about its belief that America’s biggest long-term rival for global power is China, but China has made personalized high-level engagement with African countries much more of a hallmark of its diplomacy.

For three decades, the Chinese foreign minister’s first overseas trip has been to an African country. And since 2000 Beijing has super-charged engagement through its Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-inter ... -game-plan a multilateral development and investment platform complete with head of state summits every three years. At those summits, Chinese President Xi Jinping holds bilateral meetings with at least some https://www.republicoftogo.com/toutes-l ... ew-heights if not all of his counterparts during or around the event, according to reports from Chinese state-controlled media http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-0 ... 9443_2.htm and other news outlets.
I think it is a serious missed opportunity when the American president does not do this,
said David Shinn, the former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia with extensive experience across Africa.

China is the African continent’s biggest trading partner and bilateral trade hit a record high https://qz.com/africa/2123474/china-afr ... gh-in-2021 of $254 billion last year. The U.S. — sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth largest https://wits.worldbank.org/CountrySnapshot/en/SSF trading partner — recorded a more modest $64 billion in bilateral trade in 2021. https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c0013.html And Beijing’s move this month to lift tariffs https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diploma ... -countries on 98 percent of imports from Africa’s 10 least developed economies will widen that disparity.

The challenge posed by China is even more pronounced now than under Obama, who nonetheless tried to increase America’s focus on Asia as a whole. In between Obama and Biden was President Donald Trump, who denigrated African countries and barred many of their citizens from visiting the United States.

Biden doesn’t neglect African issues, https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000184 ... e7bb410000 but he has been much more focused on Europe throughout his time in office, primarily due to Russia’s war on Ukraine. He has spent far more time in meetings and on calls with European leaders than any other part of the world, with Africa usually at the bottom of the list. :lol:

Failing to allocate the time for face-to-face meetings deprives Biden of an opportunity to leverage that contact with African leaders to foster good will in countries where China is the dominant foreign patron.
It is a major boost for African heads of state to splash their photos with the U.S. president on hometown media,
said Tibor Nagy, former assistant secretary of State for African Affairs.

The summit will not necessarily be a bust for those in attendance, who can expect meetings with other top U.S. officials.
Each delegation will have extensive opportunities for high-level engagement through plenary discussions, the head of state dinner and side meetings,
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said, adding there will be other engagements during the three days.

Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior U.S. officials
look forward to meaningful conversations with all the heads of delegation across the various sessions.
And like at other similar events, African officials will find time to meet with business leaders, civil society groups, diaspora members and engage in bilateral meetings among themselves.

But other than the dinner, what African leaders most crave — one-on-one face-time and a sense of real engagement with Biden — isn’t currently on the menu.
Why would African chiefs travel here if they don’t get time with Joe Biden?
Nagy asked.

Ryan Heath contributed to this report.

Cigar
Senior Member
Posts: 11566
Joined: 19 Apr 2010, 00:03

Re: QiQ QiQ QiQ.. they aren't worthy to meet "daddy"!

Post by Cigar » 05 Dec 2022, 12:48

Aside what you posted, wasn’t it easier (economically and visually) that the senile old man travels to Addis (AU headquarters) than the poor but ‘yes sir African leaders) travel 10s of thousands miles off their shores to wipe his wrinkled old a’ss?
These baboons have no dignity at all.

Zmeselo
Senior Member+
Posts: 33606
Joined: 30 Jul 2010, 20:43

Re: QiQ QiQ QiQ.. they aren't worthy to meet "daddy"!

Post by Zmeselo » 05 Dec 2022, 13:27

Cigar wrote:
05 Dec 2022, 12:48
Aside what you posted, wasn’t it easier (economically and visually) that the senile old man travels to Addis (AU headquarters) than the poor but ‘yes sir African leaders) travel 10s of thousands miles off their shores to wipe his wrinkled old a’ss?
These baboons have no dignity at all.
The senile old man called France: Frank. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


Zmeselo
Senior Member+
Posts: 33606
Joined: 30 Jul 2010, 20:43

Re: QiQ QiQ QiQ.. they aren't worthy to meet "daddy"!

Post by Zmeselo » 05 Dec 2022, 14:15



Russian-Israeli billionaire Mikhail Fridman reportedly arrested in UK

Source close to Alfa Group businessman tells state-owned news agency that oligarch is suspected of violating sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine

By TOI STAFF

https://www.timesofisrael.com/russian-i ... ted-in-uk/

4 Dec 2022


File: Russian businessman, co-founder of Alfa-Group Mikhail Fridman attends a conference of the Israel Keren Hayesod foundation in Moscow, Russia, September 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool, File)

A Russian businessman arrested Saturday in London was identified by Russian state media as Mikhail Fridman, the founder of one of the country’s largest banks and an Israeli citizen.

A statement https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/ ... e-offences from the UK’s National Crime Agency — which didn’t name Fridman — said he is suspected of money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the Home Office and conspiracy to commit perjury.

Officers confiscated
a number of digital devices and a significant quantity of cash
from the
multi-million-pound residence
where he was arrested.

Two other people were also arrested in connection to the case. All three have since been freed on bail after being questioned.

Russia’s TASS quoted https://tass.com/society/1545311 a source close to Fridman saying he
was detained on suspicion of violating sanctions imposed on him,
without elaborating.

Born into a Jewish family in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv in 1964, Fridman studied in Moscow and went on to build a vast business empire encompassing everything from oil and gas to banking, telecoms and distribution. He is best known as a founder of Alfa Bank, the largest private financial institution in Russia.

Fridman, along with other Kremlin-linked Russian oligarchs, was hit with Western sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Although Fridman has cultivated strong ties to Putin’s administration, he has never become part of the president’s inner circle. A day after the invasion, he spoke out against the bloodshed in Ukraine, calling it a “tragedy” for both sides.



In March, he told Bloomberg News https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features ... sway-putin that he could not afford to move to Israel because of sanctions which had essentially frozen access to his $10 billion fortune.

Fridman has provided backing for Jewish causes and was a cofounder of the Genesis Philanthropy Group, which gives out an annual award dubbed the “Jewish Nobel.”

He and two other sanctioned Russian billionaires resigned https://www.timesofisrael.com/russian-j ... sanctions/ from the group’s board earlier this year due to the sanctions, which he has vowed to contest.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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