LUCERNE, Switzerland: US Vice President Kamala Harris announced more than $1.5 billion in aid in part for Ukraine’s energy sector and its humanitarian situation as a result of Russia’s 27-month invasion of Ukraine.
The announcement was made as Harris attended a Ukraine peace summit in Lucerne, Switzerland, where she was to meet Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and address the summit’s plenary session.
The $1.5 billion includes $500 million in new funding for energy assistance and the redirecting of $324 million in previously announced funds toward emergency energy infrastructure repair and other needs in Ukraine, the vice president’s office said.
“These efforts will help Ukraine respond to Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine energy infrastructure by supporting repair and recovery, improving Ukraine’s resilience to energy supply disruptions, and laying the groundwork to repair and expand Ukraine’s energy system,” Harris’ office said.
She also announced more than $379 million in humanitarian assistance from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development to help refugees and other people impacted by the war.
The money is to cover food assistance, health services, shelter, and water, sanitation and hygiene services for millions of Ukrainians. Harris, who will spend less than 24 hours at the gathering in Lucerne, Switzerland, will be standing in for President Joe Biden at the event. The president will be just ending his participation at the G7 summit in Italy and returning to the United States to attend a fundraiser for his reelection campaign in Los Angeles.
Harris will meet with Zelensky and address the summit’s plenary session. Biden met with Zelensky both at the G7 summit, where they signed a US-Ukraine bilateral security agreement, and in France for events surrounding the 80th anniversary of the World War Two D-Day invasion.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will represent the United States at the summit on Sunday and help establish working groups on returning Ukrainian children from Russia and on energy security.
Kamala Harris announces $1.5 billion US aid for Ukraine at peace summit in Switzerland
https://arab.news/8bpy7
Kamala Harris announces $1.5 billion US aid for Ukraine at peace summit in Switzerland
- The $1.5 billion includes $500 million in new funding for energy assistance
- US vice president also announced more than $379 million in humanitarian assistance
Canada’s top envoy to the US will resign before review of free trade agreement
- Hillman helped lead the trade negotiations during US President Donald Trump’s first term
TORONTO: Canada’s ambassador to the US for the last six years said Tuesday she’s resigning next year as the two major trading partners plan to review the free trade agreement.
Ambassador Kirsten Hillman said in a letter it is the right time to put in place someone who will oversee talks about the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that is up review in 2026.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Hillman “prepared the foundations for Canada in the upcoming review” of the agreement.
Carney noted she’s one of the longest-serving ambassadors to the United States in Canada’s history.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Hillman in 2017. She was the first woman appointed to the role.
Hillman helped lead the trade negotiations during US President Donald Trump’s first term and worked with US and Chinese officials to win the release of two Canadians detained in China.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-US trade, and Hillman had been leading trade talks with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Trump ended trade talks with Carney in October after the Ontario provincial government ran an anti-tariff advertisement in the US, which upset the US president. That followed a spring of acrimony, since abated, over Trump’s insistence that Canada should become the 51st US state.
Asked this week when trade talks would resume, Trump said, “we’ll see.”
Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and more than 75 percent of Canada’s exports go to the US Most exports to the US are exempted by the USMCA trade agreement but that deal is up for review.
Carney aims to double non-US trade over the next decade.
About 60 percent of US crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85 percent of US electricity imports as well.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the US and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.
