US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy indicated in comments that Washington might be open to a plea deal for Julian #Assange that could keep him from being extradited and imprisoned in the U.S. for exposing US war crimes.

Yesterday in Accra, we found time to meet with some Zambians residing in Ghana with whom we engaged in a wide range of discussions on matters of mutual interest regarding Zambia and that country.

We encouraged them to serve as exemplary ambassadors for their country by portraying a positive image and avoid any involvement in activities that may disrupt their host nation. To address the concerns and needs of Zambians living abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had established a dedicated desk.

We assured those who expressed a desire to return to Zambia that they were free to do so, as law and order had been restored in the country. We emphasized that no one would face harassment based on whatever background. The presence of commanders in markets and bus stations, which previously caused terror had been resolved.

Furthermore, we underscored the importance of Zambians living abroad engaging in meaningful networking by identifying business opportunities that could attract investment back home. Each one of them should be Marketing Officers for our country. As an example, we highlighted the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant that we visited, which could have been identified as a potential business opportunity in Zambia much earlier.

Finally, we extended our best wishes for a pleasant stay in Ghana to all Zambians living in the country.

Hakainde Hichilema,
President of the Republic of Zambia.

This afternoon, we had a meeting with the American Ambassador, His Excellency Michael Gonzalez, and a delegation from the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

We expressed deep gratitude for the tremendous support from the USA on the path to our debt restructure. Through Ambassador Gonzalez, we thanked the American people for the First Millennium challenge Compact (MCC) that funded the Lusaka Water Supply, Sanitation and Drainage Project.

With Zambia eligible for a second Compact, a five-year development grant, we explored infrastructure projects that facilitate the easy movement of agricultural produce and boost regional trade.

Zambia only uses a small portion of the 60% arable land available in our country, providing the opportunity to leverage on Zambia’s land-linked position and contribute to the regional food basket. In order to achieve this, we need bold and deliberate initiatives that create the right ecosystem to enable food production, processing and export.

Abena Zambia, these are opportunities for you to be part of our country’s economic growth, by producing more food, creating supply chains and other businesses that result in more jobs for our people.

Hakainde Hichilema
President of the Republic of Zambia

This afternoon, we had a meeting with the American Ambassador, His Excellency Michael Gonzalez, and a delegation from the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

We expressed deep gratitude for the tremendous support from the USA on the path to our debt restructure. Through Ambassador Gonzalez, we thanked the American people for the First Millennium challenge Compact (MCC) that funded the Lusaka Water Supply, Sanitation and Drainage Project.

With Zambia eligible for a second Compact, a five-year development grant, we explored infrastructure projects that facilitate the easy movement of agricultural produce and boost regional trade.

Zambia only uses a small portion of the 60% arable land available in our country, providing the opportunity to leverage on Zambia’s land-linked position and contribute to the regional food basket. In order to achieve this, we need bold and deliberate initiatives that create the right ecosystem to enable food production, processing and export.

Abena Zambia, these are opportunities for you to be part of our country’s economic growth, by producing more food, creating supply chains and other businesses that result in more jobs for our people.

Hakainde Hichilema
President of the Republic of Zambia

This afternoon, we had a meeting with the American Ambassador, His Excellency Michael Gonzalez, and a delegation from the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

We expressed deep gratitude for the tremendous support from the USA on the path to our debt restructure. Through Ambassador Gonzalez, we thanked the American people for the First Millennium challenge Compact (MCC) that funded the Lusaka Water Supply, Sanitation and Drainage Project.

With Zambia eligible for a second Compact, a five-year development grant, we explored infrastructure projects that facilitate the easy movement of agricultural produce and boost regional trade.

Zambia only uses a small portion of the 60% arable land available in our country, providing the opportunity to leverage on Zambia’s land-linked position and contribute to the regional food basket. In order to achieve this, we need bold and deliberate initiatives that create the right ecosystem to enable food production, processing and export.

Abena Zambia, these are opportunities for you to be part of our country’s economic growth, by producing more food, creating supply chains and other businesses that result in more jobs for our people.

Hakainde Hichilema
President of the Republic of Zambia

"These guys are taking their time, they’re not in a war...”: In blistering critique, Ukraine accuses Israel of pro-Russian stance...
Israel Foreign Ministry to summon Kyiv’s envoy for reprimand after embassy says Israeli officials have a blatant disregard for moral boundaries...
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After an ostensible warming of ties under the Netanyahu government, Kyiv infuriated Israel today by blasting Jerusalem’s recent policies toward Moscow, saying the “so called ‘neutrality’ of Israel[‘s] government is considered as a clear pro-Russian position.”

In a post to its Facebook page, Ukraine’s Embassy in Israel pointed at a series of rather controversial events that took place in the first half of the year which it viewed as negatives. The embassy called Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s February trip to Kyiv fruitless and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of making entirely fictional and speculative assumptions in a recent interview.

In an interview last week with The Jerusalem Post, PM Netanyahu said that “we also have concerns that any systems that we give to Ukraine would be used against us because they could fall into Iranian hands… and by the way, that’s not a theoretical possibility. It actually happened with the Western anti-tank weapons that we now find at our borders. So we have to be very careful here...”

In response to the embassy post, the Israeli Foreign Ministry plans to summon Mr. Korniychuk for a reprimand in the coming days.

During his February trip to Ukraine, Israel FM Cohen was well-received by his counterpart Dmytro Kuleba after pledging $200 million in loan guarantees for healthcare and civilian infrastructure and assistance in developing a smart early warning system. But Kyiv has grown frustrated as the timeline for deployment of the system has been pushed back to September and it has found the loans difficult to access.

"These guys are taking their time,” said Ambassador Korniychuk. “They’re not in a war...”
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The embassy statement today further lambasted Israel for conducting two rounds of high-level political negotiations with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It also decried the deal reached by Israel and Moscow earlier this month in which Moscow agreed to open an embassy branch office in Jerusalem while simultaneously settling a land dispute.

Kyiv charged senior Israeli officials who attended the Russia Day reception in Jerusalem earlier this month with a blatant disregard for moral boundaries - “Furthermore,” said the statement, “the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been dead silent regarding the regular Antisemitic statements made by Putin and his minions.”

This morning we were delighted to receive Letters of Credence from Her Excellency Mrs Marileydis Dueñas Morales, Ambassador from the Republic of Cuba and Their Excellencies Ms Lindiwe Cynthia Kenene and Mr Ali Saad Alkahtani from the Kingdoms of Eswatini and Saudi Arabia, respectively.

We thanked Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Eswatini for all the support we have received from them over the decades, and encouraged deeper business-to-business relationships and government projects like the Saudi-funded King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Specialised Hospital in Lusaka.

We expressed our gratitude to the Government of Cuba for the cooperation in the education and medical sectors which has seen Zambia benefit from the expertise of Cuban doctors and receive specialist training for working with differently-abled children.

Zambia and Eswatini have a long history of mutual support and we continue to work closely as SADC countries towards a lasting peace in our region.

We congratulated the new envoys for being accredited to Zambia and urged them to grow our trade ties and open up opportunities for businesses between our nations. With our focus on Economic diplomacy, we pledged to further our relations with these sister countries to create prosperity in our countries for the benefit of all our people.

Hakainde Hichilema
President of the Republic of Zambia

Today we officiated at the graduation ceremony of 1, 341 officer-recruits at the Zambia Police, Lilayi Training College in Lusaka.

Our message to the graduates was that their job is to protect citizens. Let citizens run to them for protection and not running away from them as assailants. We told them to apply the law fairly without recourse to political affiliation or indeed social status.

Fellow citizens, let’s join hands with the men and women in uniform and curb crime of whatever form. Let's protect each other without infringing on each other's rights.

The men and women in uniform have our support and we encourage each one of them to serve the country to the best of their abilities as our ambassadors of change.

Once more, congratulations to the officers who have graduated today.

May God bless you all.

Hakainde Hichilema
President of the Republic of Zambia

A corruption scandal that has shaken Colombia’s first leftist government and undermined its ability to carry out ambitious reforms grew on Monday, following the release of several voice messages featuring the nation’s former ambassador to Venezuela. https://apnews.com/article/colombia-president-petro-corruption-scandal-a3d4c4cc99c698158386bd5ff1b27335

Zambia and The People’s Republic of China enjoy an all-weather friendship forged over many decades. We were pleased to receive a courtesy call, this afternoon, from the Chinese ambassador, His Excellency Du Xiaohui.

We discussed issues of mutual interest and expressed that we are committed to strengthening our bilateral ties, as we continue working together.

Both countries are opening up opportunities for business and investment as we work to create prosperity for our people.

Hakainde Hichilema
President of the Republic of Zambia

#Tanzania will become a special partner of the upcoming 15th #CAEXPO, a Tanzanian diplomat announced in Beijing on Aug 13. It will be the first time for an African country to participate in the annual gathering hosted by China and 10 #ASEAN countries.

Mbelwa Kairuki, Tanzania's ambassador to China, said the country hopes to promote trade between Tanzania and China as well as ASEAN countries, and to attract more investment and promote tourism and related investment projects.

Seif Ali Iddi, a Tanzanian parliamentarian who once served as ambassador to China in the 1990s, will lead the team and attend the event, according to Kairuki. #BeltandRoad

BREAKING: FBI Reopens Probe Into Julian Assange

The FBI has restarted its investigation into WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age reported on Thursday.

According to a front-page story in the SMH, the FBI is looking to build its case up against Assange, who was indicted by the US Justice Department in 2019 for exposing US war crimes by publishing classified documents he obtained from a source, a standard journalistic practice.

The report said that last week, the FBI contacted Andrew O’Hagan, a Scottish novelist who worked as a ghostwriter for Assange’s autobiography. O’Hagan rejected the FBI request as he opposes the US’s efforts to imprison Assange for his journalism.

“I would not give a witness statement against a fellow journalist being pursued for telling the truth,” O’Hagan said. “I would happily go to jail before agreeing in any way to support the American security establishment in this cynical effort.”

Assange’s legal team was surprised by the FBI request, which came amid building pressure on the Biden administration to drop the charges against the WikiLeaks founder. A delegation of Australian lawmakers recently met with the US ambassador to Australia and called on Washington to free Assange, who has been held in London’s Belmarsh Prison since the indictment.

“It appears they are continuing to try to investigate, which I find unusual given the amount of time that has passed since the investigation began,” Stephen Kenny, Assange’s Australian lawyer, told SMH.

Source: Antiwar.com

(https://news.antiwar.com/2023/06/01/fbi-reopens-probe-into-julian-assange/)
#breaking #news #julianassange #assange

Following the arrival of the inaugural flight at Copenhagen Airport, a press conference was held in the presence of H.E. Ambassador Mehreteab Mulugeta, Ambassador of Ethiopia to Sweden, Mr. Lemma Yedecha, Ethiopian Airlines Group Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Copenhagen Airports and other signatories.

#FlyEthiopian

Darth gator is our zoo ambassador for education! He is so awesome and I love his enthusiasm! 🏻

We were delighted to have fruitful discussions with His Excellency Khalifa Abdulrahman Almarzooqi, the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Dar es Salaam and accredited to Zambia, at State House this afternoon.

During the meeting, His Excellency Khalifa Abdulrahman Almarzooqi conveyed a special message from His Excellency Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates.

Additionally, he led a delegation of business leaders from IRH Holdings RSC Limited of the UAE to explore business opportunities in mining and other sectors. We extended our congratulations to the UAE for effectively managing their economy and achieving exponential growth for the benefit of their people.

Zambia and the UAE maintain cordial relations built on mutual trust and cooperation. As we work towards rebuilding our country's economy, we aim to draw upon the UAE's past experiences. Similar to us, they had abundant natural resources but required finance and technology.

During the discussion, we emphasized the importance of value addition, accessing quality markets with fair prices, and engaging in direct trade rather than relying on third parties.

Like the UAE, our vision is to create wealth for our citizens while fostering an enabling environment for them to generate their own pathways to prosperity.

Hakainde Hichilema,
President of the Republic of Zambia.