President Muhammadu Buhari will depart Abuja Sunday to Washington DC on a
four-day official visit during which he will hold high-level talks with
President Barack Obama and other senior officials of the United States
government.
Topmost on the agenda of President Buhari’s talks with President Obama
and United States Government officials will be measures to strengthen and
intensify bilateral and international cooperation against terrorism in
Nigeria and West-Africa.
President Buhari who will meet with President Obama at the White House on
Monday, July 20, will later hold further discussions with the Chairman of
the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey and the
Deputy Secretary of Defence, Robert Work on military and defence
cooperation.
The President will also meet with Vice President Joe Biden and confer with
the US Attorney-General, Loretta Lynch, the US Secretary of Treasury,
Jack Lew, the US Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker and the US Trade
representative, Michael Froman on United States support for his
administration’s war against corruption as well as fresh measures to
boost Nigeria-United States trade relations.
The President, who will be received by the United States Secretary of
State at the State Department in Washington DC, will later hold meetings
with the United States Senate and Congressional Committees on Foreign
Relations, as well as the Black Caucus of the United States House of
Representatives.
Before leaving Washington DC, President Buhari will address the United
States Chamber of Commerce and Corporate Council for Africa.
The President, who will be accompanied by the Governors of Imo, Nasarawa,
Edo, Borno and Oyo States as well as the Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria and Permanent Secretaries of the Federal Ministries of Defence,
Foreign Affairs, Industry, Trade and Investment, will also host an
interactive session with Nigerians in the American Diaspora.
The US trip will also afford President Buhari the opportunity of a reunion
with members of the American War College Class of 1980 in which he was a
distinguished participant.
He is due back in Abuja on Thursday, July 23.