Washington, DC - Special Representative for Global Partnerships Andrew O’Brien will travel to Paris, London, and Dublin from May 18-27.
Washington, DC - Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Hanoi, Vietnam on May 16. While in Hanoi, Deputy Secretary Blinken will meet with senior Vietnamese government officials and representatives of civil society organizations. He will then travel on to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on May 19, where he will engage with youth at an American Center Innovation Lab video design competition, discuss education partnerships, and interact with private sector representatives.
Washington, DC - The United States welcomes the formal commitments taken yesterday in Algiers and today in Bamako to advance lasting peace and reconciliation in Mali. We urge all Malian parties to sign the Accord to underscore their concrete commitment to peace and to continue to engage constructively to implement the Accord.
Washington, DC - The Counter-ISIL Finance Group (CIFG), which met on May 7 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, announced today the issuance of a Communiqué rejecting the payment or facilitation of ransoms to ISIL in line with relevant U.N. Security Council Resolutions. Representatives from 25 countries and several multilateral organizations met to continue their work to combat ISIL’s sources of financing, including the dangerous and ongoing problem of kidnapping for ransom.