Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi on Thursday held talks with his United States counterpart Antony Blinken at the State Department in Washington DC.
Mudavadi’s meeting with the US Secretary of State centered on peace and security issues, including regional conflicts in East Africa and disruption of global logistics by the Middle East crisis.
“Our engagement in Washington DC focused on Kenya and US mediation efforts to mitigate the disruptive impact of these crises on the people and economies of the region,” Mudavadi noted in a statement after the meeting
“We appreciated our long-standing support for global climate issues, the fight against terrorism, and the need for global development finance architecture reforms,” he added
At the same time, Mudavadi who has been on a three-day official tour of the US disclosed that the issue of the deployment of Kenyan police to Haiti formed part of the agenda of his meeting with Blinken.
“We further agreed to continue plans to better the lives of the Haitian people,” he said
At the same time, Mudavadi said Blinken responded positively to the request to expedite negotiations of the Kenya-US Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) and for the US to consider extending the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beyond its expiry next year.
“These initiatives will facilitate expanded duty and quota-free access for Kenya’s and Africa’s exports to the US market,” he said