The presidents of Afghanistan, Colombia and Nigeria will
join US Secretary of State John Kerry at an anti-corruption
summit in London next week, which British leader David
Cameron said Sunday will make the issue a global priority.
The prime minister wants those attending Thursday's day-
long summit to sign the "first ever declaration against
corruption" that would acknowledge the damage it causes
and commit them to tackling it.
"For too long there has been a taboo about tackling this
issue head on. The summit will change that. Together we
will push the fight against corruption to the top of the
international agenda where it belongs," Cameron said.
Issues under discussion will include how to "lift the lid on
practices that allow the corrupt to act with impunity", he
said in a statement released by Downing Street.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Bahari, Afghanistan's
Ashraf Ghani and their Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel
Santos will be among those attending, as will Norwegian
Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, World Bank
president Jim Yong Kim, and the head of advocacy group
Transparency International, Jose Ugaz, are also expected.
Russia's foreign ministry announced it would be sending
deputy foreign minister Oleg Syromolotov.
The summit will also address corruption in sport, with
representatives of sports committees, believed to include
football governing bodies FIFA and UEFA, due to attend.
Cameron said corruption was the "root of so many of the
world's problems", from holding back economic growth to
undermining security "by pushing people towards extremist
groups".
"The battle against corruption will not be won overnight. It
will take time, courage and determination to deliver the
reforms that are necessary," he said.
Since the G8 summit in 2013, Cameron has led international
calls to tackle aggressive tax avoidance and evasion and
global corruption, and is hoping to build on the momentum
for change sparked by revelations from the Panama Papers.
But campaigners have warned the British leader must also
act on issues within his own jurisdiction, namely the
secrecy of British tax havens and the way anonymous
money flows through the London property market.
The publication of millions of files from Panamanian firm
Mossack Fonseca revealed the large-scale use by wealthy
individuals and firms of anonymous companies to evade
scrutiny, many of them in British overseas territories.
Cameron's late father was named in the files for an
investment fund he had set up in the Bahamas in the late
1980s, but the premier insisted he had done nothing wrong.
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