Inequality will be among the issues topping the agenda as the world’s political and business elite meet in Davos from Tuesday until Friday, when 3,000 people will gather for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. / AFP PHOTO /
DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) — US Vice President Joe Biden, speaking just days before he leaves office, on Monday urged the incoming Trump administration to maintain his national fight to eradicate cancer.
“This is the one bipartisan thing that exists and I pray will continue to exist in the new administration,” Biden told an audience of executives and opinion-makers at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos.
The vice president lost his son Beau Biden to brain cancer in 2015. The Obama administration soon after announced a cancer “moonshot” programme intended to speed up research into the disease.
Biden said he had already spoken to his successor as vice president, Mike Pence, about maintaining the programme despite the incoming administration’s eagerness to rip up policies tied to President Barack Obama.
“I have already spoken to the vice president elect, who is a good man … about my willingness to continue to work with him and the incoming administration, to be committed and enthusiastic as we are in our goal in ending cancer as we know it,” Biden said.
“Our prayer is that they will do that as well,” Biden added, speaking on the first day of his two-day stop at the Davos forum.
Biden has said he will continue his work to organise cancer research once he leaves office Friday.
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