Wednesday's global agenda: Rand Paul unveils foreign policy

By Julian Pecquet - 02/06/13 10:26 AM ET

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a newly minted member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, unveils his vision for a “conservative foreign policy” at 11 a.m. at the Heritage Foundation. Watch it live here.

John Kerry gets publicly sworn in as secretary of State by Vice President Biden at 4 p.m. Watch it live here. Kerry was officially sworn in at a private ceremony by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.

South of the border: The Inter-American Dialogue releases its report outlining “A More Ambitious Agenda” for U.S. relations with Mexico.

Muslims meet: The crises in Syria and Mali are expected to be high on the agenda as the 56 members of the Organization of Islamic States meet in Cairo, Egypt, for their two-day summit.

Acting Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin meets with Democratic Republic of the Congo Prime Minister Matata Ponyo.

And former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is headed to the Council on Foreign Relations.

In other news:

The U.S. has a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia. [The New York Times]

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, visited Egypt in a sign of warming ties after the two countries broke off relations following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. [The Washington Post]

A leading critic of Islamists in Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring, was shot dead Wednesday. [The New York Times]

Lobbying and regulations:

Sidley Austin is lobbying to get a visa for Yuriy Ivaniuschenko, a steel magnate and member of Ukraine's parliament with a shady past who owns the sixth-largest coking coal company in the United States.

The Fratelli Group is registered to lobby on behalf of Colombia

The Podesta Group is working with Azerbaijan to “provide strategic counsel to the principal on strengthening the principal's ties to the United States government and institutions.”

Global Affairs news you might have missed:

Obama to make first visit to Israel as president in the spring

Tougher sanctions on North Korea demanded by GOP after 'vile stunt'

Obama ups pressure on France, Germany to list Hezbollah as terror group after Bulgaria bombing

New round of multilateral nuclear talks with Iran set for this month

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