A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda next week, from the team at Foresight News. Delivered to your inbox on Fridays.
Leading the week
President Joe Biden hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state visit at the White House on Thursday (June 22), a key summit between the world’s two largest democracies. Defense ties between the two nations are expected to be high on the agenda for the talks, which follow on from recent trips to New Delhi by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Biden and Modi are also likely to address the conflict in Ukraine amid frustration in Washington over India’s reluctance to criticize Russia, as well as preparations for the India-hosted G20 summit in September. Modi is also due to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday.
John Durham, the special counsel appointed to investigate the FBI’s probe into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, is due to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday (June 21). The hearing will mark his first public appearance since publishing his final report, though he appears behind closed doors on Tuesday (June 20) before the House Intelligence Committee. Although Durham’s report made no new major findings, the committee’s outspoken chairman Jim Jordan and his Republican colleagues are likely to use the hearing to renew claims of ongoing institutional anti-Trump bias at the FBI and Department of Justice, including as it pertains to the work of current special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump rivals Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, and Tim Scott all due to speak at the annual Road to Majority conference on Friday (June 23) hosted by the Faith & Freedom Coalition. Trump himself is up on Saturday (June 24), alongside Nikki Haley, who recently called the former president ‘reckless’ but said she was minded to pardon him if he’s convicted of mishandling government secrets. DeSantis, meanwhile, appears to have settled on a strategy of avoiding questions about Trump’s indictment by pivoting to the alleged weaponization of the FBI and DOJ. As it currently stands, Trump’s intervention on Saturday will be his first public event since his remarks in Bedminster on the day of his federal arraignment, which he described in typically understated terms as ‘the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of this country’.
Looking abroad
Antony Blinken is in Beijing on Monday (June 19) as he wraps up two days of talks with Chinese officials that begin this weekend. Blinken’s visit, the first by a US Secretary of State since 2018, had been scheduled for February but was postponed at the last minute amid the spy balloon row. It follows a series of recent interactions between Chinese and US officials that have signaled an attempt at a rapprochement, though China notably turned down a proposed meeting between the countries’ defense ministers on the margins of a conference in Singapore earlier this month. Blinken is likely to use his visit to reiterate warnings against Chinese involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, but Washington is already managing expectations ahead of the trip, with a senior diplomat warning ‘a long list of deliverables’ is not anticipated.
Blinken then heads to the UK, which is hosting this year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference on Wednesday and Thursday (June 21-22). The June 6 destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, which was under Russian control at the time, is likely to feature prominently in discussions as floodwaters recede and the scale of the humanitarian and ecological impact emerges. A major focus this year is on mobilizing the private sector’s involvement in Ukraine’s reconstruction, currently forecast to cost more than $411 billion, over twice the country’s annual GDP. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised on Thursday to ‘rebuild everything’, vowing to leave no ruins to serve as a reminder of Russian aggression. The Ukrainian leader addresses the opening plenary of the conference alongside UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, though it’s unclear whether he plans to attend in person.
French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, is hosting the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris on Thursday and Friday (June 22-23). Organizers say over 100 heads of state and government are set to attend the gathering, with participants expected to discuss how IMF reserve assets known as ‘special drawing rights’ (SDRs) could be used to direct finance to developing countries as well as how reforms to international financial institutions could assist global efforts to combat climate change. China, notably, has confirmed new premier Li Qiang will attend as part of his first foreign visit since taking office. The US delegation is led by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who holds a press conference on the opening day.