U.S. President Joe Biden will meet (NYT) with foreign leaders and representatives of drug companies in a virtual summit today that aims to secure commitments to vaccinate 70 percent of the world against COVID-19 by September 2022. He is expected to announce the purchase (Bloomberg) of five hundred million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for donation abroad. 

Several world leaders decried vaccine inequity (AP) in their speeches at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) yesterday. In the United States, firms such as Pfizer and Moderna have resisted calls to share their production know-how with plants in developing countries. UNGA speeches also emphasized the importance of climate action; Washington said it will double its green funding (WaPo) to developing countries, and Beijing said it will cease financing (SCMP) for coal-fired power plants abroad.

The plan could include adding twenty to thirty staff members in Washington and at embassies around the world to monitor China’s actions, according to a Foreign Policy report.
 
South Korea: President Moon Jae-in repeated a call for a declaration (Yonhap) that the Korean War has ended in order to move nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang forward. Washington has resisted such a declaration.
 
For Foreign Affairs, Victor Cha looks at how Washington could revive nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang.

The request raises tensions (Reuters) with an envoy in New York City who represents the Afghan government that the Taliban ousted last month.
 
France/India: French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed closer collaboration (France 24) between the two countries in a phone call that came in the wake of French anger over a new U.S.-United Kingdom-Australia defense pact.

After pressure from progressive Democrats, the funding was removed (ABC) from a bill to prevent a government shutdown, which the U.S. House of Representatives passed last night. The Senate is expected to block the bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said he will introduce a separate bill (CNN) to fund Israel’s Iron Dome system.
 
Tunisia: A military judge ordered the jailing (Reuters) of two opposition lawmakers. President Kais Saied seized power in July in a move his opponents called a coup.

The country solicited a new credit arrangement (Bloomberg) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to replace one that recently expired. Last week, the IMF said it was too soon to discuss a new deal.
 
Cameroon/U.S.: Washington plans to nominate (NYT) Cameroonian virologist John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to lead its AIDS-prevention initiative, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). He would be the first person of African origin to serve in the role.

London is weighing the possibility (FT) of joining the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) after Washington signaled that a bilateral trade deal, which British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had sought, won’t materialize any time soon.
 
This Backgrounder looks at the USMCA trade pact.
 
Turkey: The country is preparing to send (Hurriyet) the Paris Agreement on climate to its legislature for ratification, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. It would become the final Group of Twenty (G20) nation to ratify the pact (Bloomberg).

As part of a World Health Organization program, two research centers in Argentina and Brazil will develop and manufacture mRNA vaccines. Further details of the plan are still being determined, the Pan American Health Organization said.
 
Costa Rica/Panama: Authorities in the two countries said they arrested more than forty people (Reuters) suspected of smuggling migrants to the United States.

The Federal Reserve is expected to signal (WSJ) how soon it could slow the bond-purchasing program meant to cushion the pandemic shock.
 
CFR’s Roger W. Ferguson Jr. discusses the Fed’s pandemic responses.