President Uhuru Kenyatta held talks with four of the six leaders from the Group of Industrialised Countries who attended the G7 meeting in Italy over the weekend, State House reported today.
State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu described the President’s address to the leaders as representative of Kenya’s ascent in global relevance.
“As a democracy with a growing and mixed economy, that is facing global terrorism, Kenya’s success is key to the G7’s democratic countries whose priorities are protecting global security, protecting democracy and expanding opportunities for their private sector,” Mr Esipisu said.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The President met Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, French president Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Other heads of state who attended the meeting were US President Donald Trump and Paolo Gentiloni, the Prime Minister of Italy.
With Mr Abe, the conversation was around cooperation on investing in infrastructure and progress in the implementation of matters agreed on during the Tokyo International Conference for African Development (Ticad) last year.
In his talks with Mr Macron, President Kenyatta was reported to have agreed to increase cooperation on security and industrialisation.
Ms Merkel invited Mr Kenyatta to the G20 meeting in Hamburg in July while they discussed cooperation on health and security with Mr Trudeau.
Mr Esipisu said the President’s presence at the meeting in Taormina could lead to increased investments in Kenya.
Mr Kenyatta had been invited to talk to the G7 about innovation as a factor of economic growth in Africa.
“The G7 leaders were made aware that Kenyans are not among the tens of thousands of Africans that are trying to get to Europe on life-risking rafts crossing the Mediterranean Sea,” Mr Esipisu said.
