An insight of the discussion between the President of United States, Joe Biden and President Bola Tinubu was revealed on Tuesday.
President Biden was said to have called Tinubu following the release of Binance executive Director, Tigran Gambaryan after dropping the criminal charges against him.
Gambaryan, a US citizen, was arrested while on a business trip to Nigeria in February and charged with his company for laundering $35.4m and tax evasion, which they denied.
This followed the escape from custody of his colleague Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan national who was Binance’s Africa regional manager, and had been arrested in Nigeria alongside Gambaryan.
The two leaders according to Nigeria Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar had a telephone conversation which lasted for about 30 minutes.
They were said to have also discussed issues that bothers on the reform of the UN Security Council, and backing Nigeria quest to have a seat in the council.
Equally discussed acvording to Tuggar was the issue of security Africa and particularly in West Africa.
He said Biden thanked President Tinubu for his partnership and for Nigeria’s partnership in particular the collaboration between the two countries with regards to our law enforcement and law enforcement agencies as well as release of our e of the suspects of the cryptocurrency exchange company (Binance).”
Tinubu on his part, also thanked the U.S. for the partnership and collaboration in numerous areas and also discussed the issue of cooperation with regard to security in Africa and in particular in west Africa.
” He equally assured President Biden that this is a partnership that will continue and he stated as matter of fact not just once, at least twice that the future of the world relies on africa which was why it was important for this partnership to continue.
“The two leaders also discussed the issue of permanent seat and the United Nations Security Council and President Biden once again assured that the United States is committed to seeing Africa having two permanent seats. He also reiterated that he does not see any reason why one of those seats should not belong to Nigeria, given its position in Africa, its stature and its importance.
“And of course, President Biden as we all know is leaving very soon as he is not contesting elections, so the two leaders also exchanged fondness for each other and the meetings they have had including the G20 meeting which is another area where Nigeria is pushing hard to ensure that it becomes a member of the G20 and of course they concluded by saying that they were looking forward to staying in touch even though President Biden is leaving office.
“And it is also important to underscore the fact that it was made clear during the phone call that Nigeria is a law abiding country, it is a country that is guided by the rule of law and we have our processes and the United States equally recognises those processes and respects them. As a matter of fact, President Tinubu during the discussion even mentioned the similarities of the fact that our system of government is very similar to the United States system of government, we adopted our won system of government having gone back to civilian constitution and democracy in 1999 by adopting a US styled system of government. So the rule of law is very important which is why we these processes which the two leaders both assured that they will continue to collaborate in that regard.”
Responding to specific issues discussed in during the phone call as it concerns Binance, the Minister said “Certainly, there was a situation were gratitude was expressed but again, remember I said we have processes, we are a country that is guided by the rule of law and due process, that is what transpired.
“Of course there were diplomatic exchanges also and discuss that resulted in resolving that but it was not purely that, it was also Nigeria following due process and abiding by the rule of law.”
In the area of partnership, he said “in terms of partnership, don’t forget that there’s a dimension of that which is the sharing of intelligence which is very vital, application of technology and of course equipment-kinetic and non-kinetic and training.
“Of course the United States is also a leader in the world today in artificial intelligence. I would say that there are the number one nation when it comes to artificial intelligence and it is evident that in the future a lot is going to rely on artificial intelligence. So the sooner we get into it the better and the United States has expressed interest in working with Nigeria on artificial intelligence.
“I believe if I heard it correctly, President Biden also alluded to the upcoming event that is coming up in lagos on artificial intelligence so will continue to collaborate in that regard.”
