Obama to meet with sub-Saharan African leaders next week

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice announced Monday that President Obama will host a luncheon for leaders of sub-Saharan African countries next week during the ministerial meeting of the U.N. General Assembly "to promote economic and social development," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports. Rice said, "[W]e are looking to have a dialogue with responsible leaders about the future of Africa's economic and social development," and not all sub-Saharan African heads of state and government have been included in the lunch.

The future of Africa's development was emphasized by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during her recent seven-nation tour of Africa. Though "Clinton promot[ed] trade between African producers and the U.S.," she advised, "Africans should not overlook their own continent, with a population estimated at 800 million."

In addition to "Obama's attendance at a U.N. summit on climate change on Tuesday, his address at the opening of the General Assembly's ministerial meeting on Wednesday, and his chairing of a high-level Security Council meeting on disarmament and controlling the spread of nuclear weapons on Thursday," the president will hold a meeting with countries that contribute high numbers of police and troops to the U.N.'s peacekeeping operations, the article notes (Lederer, 9/14).