WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will host his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernandez in Washington next week during a democracy summit, the White House has announced.
Karine Jean-Pierre, White House spokeswoman, said in a statement on Saturday that Biden’s meeting with the Argentine President will be held on the sidelines of the 2nd Summit for Democracy on 29 March.
Both leaders had originally been scheduled to meet in July last year. But the meeting was postponed after Biden tested positive for Covid-19.
The statement said Biden and Fernandez would celebrate 200 years of bilateral ties and discuss issues including minerals, space, climate change, and technology.
It added that both would also discuss economic cooperation, their shared values of democracy, inclusion, and the protection of human rights.
Summit hosts
The Summit for Democracy will be held on 28-30 March, co-hosted by the US, the Netherlands, South Korea, Costa Rica, and Zambia.
The first edition of the summit was held in 2021 and was spearheaded by President Biden, who has made the contest between autocracies–such as Russia and China– and democracies a central theme of his administration.
