by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, World
Seoul : South Korea and North Korea on Monday agreed to hold a summit meeting of their leaders in Pyongyang in September.
The agreement was made during high-level talks on the northern side of the peace village of Panmunjom that separates the two Koreas. They, however, did not unveil the date of the meeting, reports Yonhap News Agency.
“We agreed to hold an inter-Korean summit within September in Pyongyang” the two Koreas said in a joint press statement issued after the meeting.
North Korea’s chief delegate, Ri Son-gwon, hinted after the meeting that the two sides agreed on a date but decided not to announce it, only to emphasise that the summit will take place “within September”.
The summit meeting, if held, will mark the third of its kind between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un following their face-to-face meetings in April and May.
In the April summit, the two leaders agreed to meet again in Pyongyang some time later this year.
During Monday’s talks, the two Koreas also discussed what has been implemented since their previous summits, especially on their promised efforts to expand cross-border exchanges and cooperation.
“We reviewed the implementation situations of the Panmunjom Declaration and held consultations in a sincere manner on matters related to its more active enforcement,” the two sides said, referring to the agreement reached in the historic April summit.
The talks came amid worries that the denuclearization process seems to have been in a stalemate since the June 12 summit in Singapore between North Korea and the US.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Muslim World, Social Round-up
Nouakchott : African leaders from across the continent on Monday discussed ways to promote and sustain peace, development, and security on the closing day of the 31st African Union summit. The leaders emphasized the need for establishment of a free trade area for the entire continent.
The summit wrapped up late Monday in Mauritania’s capital with advisory decisions on Libya, Somalia, and South Sudan.
Attending the two-day summit in Nouakchott were 22 African presidents, four prime ministers, and two foreign ministers. In a written statement, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council said international actors should resume their efforts to implement a UN plan which aims to secure stability, territorial integrity and security in Libya.
Emphasizing the humanitarian conditions in South Sudan, which are worsening day by day due to war, the statement said the parties should fulfill their obligations.
Regarding Somalia, the council said the African Union supports the activities of its federal government in the transition period. It also asked the UN to finance the African Union’s mission in Somalia.
Speaking at a news conference, African Union Chairperson and Rwandan President Paul Kagame said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement was among the topics that topped the summit’s agenda. Kagame said five more countries signed the agreement.
He added that the establishment of a free trade area would have a great impact on the welfare of the African continent.
Africa urgently needs a comprehensive approach to deal with extremist attacks that take into account the cultural and economic issues that are the root causes of the violence, said Mauritanian President Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz from his side.
The summit also focused on the union’s 2063 socio-economic transformation plan, which aims to make Africa a strong and integrated player on the global stage.
—SM/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Emerging Businesses, Events, Marketing Basics, Markets, Technology, World
San Francisco : The US-China Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tech Summit took place on Friday in Silicon Valley, seeking to start an open dialogue between tech leaders of the two countries on the major challenges ahead with the acceleration of AI adoption across various industries.
“We are one of the most diverse places in the US. We welcome totally… cooperation,” Xinhua quoted Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak as saying.
“I think it’s much better to talk and communicate and share and get more done than I just stay narrow and compete, and keep what we have from them.”
Wozniak added: “I’m hoping there are more and more joint ventures and investment both directions.”
This gathering is co-hosted by the AI Alliance of Silicon Valley, the Future Society and China’s AI Industry Alliance (AIIA), the official industry body behind China’s AI Strategy, and the host of AI Forum at the Wuzhen Summit.
“This is the first ever US-China AI Tech Summit in Silicon Valley,” Helen Liang, Co-President of The Al Alliance of Silicon Valley said.
“This elite gathering will help shape global AI strategy, industry best practices and AI governance policy.”
The summit catalyzes a subsequent series of industry forums, working groups, and other collaborations, focusing on Future Mobility, AI in Healthcare, AI in FinTech, AI in the Law, AI for Enterprise and Robotics and Drones, etc.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Social Round-up, World
By Arul Louis,
New York : US President Donald Trump is proposing phased negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, starting with the planned June 12 summit in Singapore during which he does not expect a complete deal on denuclearisation.
At the same time, Trump has also set an ambitious goal for his interactions with Kim aiming for an end to the official 70-year state of war between the US and North Korea.
After a meeting Kim Yong-chol, the North Korean leader’s emissary, in Washington on Friday, Trump confirmed that the Singapore summit he had canceled last week was back on track.
“I think we’re going to have a relationship, and it will start on June 12th,” the President said.
Kim Yong-chol traveled to Washington after two days of negotiations with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York to hand over a letter from Kim Jong-un to Trump.
Trump said that “it ended up being a two-hour conversation with the second most powerful man in North Korea” during which they discussed a whole range of subjects.
Tamping down hopes of an imminent breakthrough, Trump said: “We’re not going to go in and sign something on June 12th and we never were. We’re going to start a process. And I told them today, ‘Take your time. We can go fast. We can go slowly’. But I think they’d like to see something happen.
“You’re talking about years of hostility; years of problems; years of, really, hatred between so many different nations. But I think you’re going to have a very positive result in the end.”
As a goodwill gesture, Trump said that he will not be putting any more sanctions on North Korea, but the existing ones will continue.
Pompeo, however, has asserted that the US won’t budge from the ultimate goal of denuclearising North Korea.
“I have been very clear that President Trump and the United States objective is very consistent and well known: the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” he sad on Thursday.
North Korea poses a major threat with the nuclear devices as well as missiles capable of reaching the US mainland that it has developed.
After it tested them last year, the two leaders traded threats and abuses, while the US succeeded in tightening the UN sanctions on North Korea.
Later this year they cooled down and agreed to talk.
While preparations were going on for the talks, there was a burst of “tremendous anger and open hostility” coming out of Pyongyang last month, which Trump cited to call off the talks.
They were provoked by comments from Trump’s new National Security Adviser John Bolton and Vice President Mike Pence invoking a “Libyan model” for dealing with North Korea.
It upset Pyongyang because after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi shutdown his nuclear programme in 2003 after which he was overthrown and killed in 2011 following attacks by US and its European allies.
Bolton and Pence have been sidelined and Pompeo, whom Trump has praised for negotiating with North Korea, has taken centre stage.
While Trump would score points internationally and domestically by pulling off the summit and soften his hardline image by having the summit, Kim Jong-un appears to be equally invested in the denuclearisation talks that could translate to economic development for his impoverished country that is under severe economic sanctions.
Trump said that if the nuclear issue is resolved, he expected South Korea, Japan and China to provide aid to North Korea, without any cost to the US for rebuilding it.
Trump said that during the meeting with Kim Yong-chol they talked about ending the Korean War which continues formally.
“And there is a possibility of something like that,” he added.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Social Round-up, World
North and South Korea are resuming senior-level peace talks
Panmunjom : A high-level meeting took place between North Korea and South Korea on Friday to discuss steps to implement the agreement reached by their leaders in the April 27 and May 26 summits.
In the meeting, North Korea proposed holding joint events in South Korea to mark the anniversary of the two Koreas’ first-ever summit in 2000, a Unification Ministry official said.
South Korea also proposed opening a liaison office in the North Korean border city of Kaesong as the first step to implement the agreements reached in the April 27 summit, reports Yonhap news agency.
The North shared the need to open such an office as soon as possible, according to the official.
The morning session of the meeting, that started at 10 a.m. at Panmunjom, ended after less than an hour. Both the Koreas will resume their talks in the afternoon.
“The two sides exchanged broad ideas with regard to schedules for talks in each sector, joint events to mark the June 15 summit (held in 2000) and the (opening of) a liaison office. After reviewing each other’s proposals, they agreed to meet again. There appear to be no big differences in their stances,” a ministry official said.
The talks were originally scheduled for May 16, but North Korea abruptly called it off at the last minute, taking issue with joint military drills between South Korea and the US.
In an apparently hastily arranged second inter-Korean summit last week, the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to hold high-level talks on June 1.
—IANS
