Abhishek SINGH est le nouvel ambassadeur de l'Inde au Bénin. Il a présenté les copies figurées de ses lettres de créance au ministre des Affaires étrangères, Olushegun ADJADI BAKARI, ce mercredi 14 janvier 2026.
Un nouvel ambassadeur indien prend officiellement fonction au Bénin. Abhishek SINGH, ambassadeur désigné de l'Inde près le Bénin a présenté ses lettres de créances au ministre des Affaires étrangères, Olushegun ADJADI BAKARI, ce mercredi 14 janvier 2026. Etape importante qui marque sa prise de fonction au Bénin.
L'audience qui a suivi la cérémonie de présentation des lettres de créance a permis aux deux personnalités de passer en revue les relations bilatérales entre Cotonou et New Delhi, et d'explorer les possibilités de leur renforcement.
Après cette rencontre avec le chef de la diplomatie béninoise, le diplomate indien va rencontrer le chef de l'Etat lors d'une audience, pour présenter ses lettres de créance.
F. A. A.
Au cours de l'audience qui a suivie, @shegunbakari & l'Ambassadeur ont échangé sur l'état des relations bilatérales, déjà excellentes entre Cotonou et New Delhi et exploré les voies de leur renforcement.
L'Inde occupe une place de choix parmi les partenaires commerciaux du Bénin. pic.twitter.com/da1g4XCdgY
— Bénin Diplomatie (@BeninDiplomatie) January 14, 2026
La culture béninoise s'illustre à l'international. Du 12 décembre 2025 au 14 janvier 2026, le Ghana accueille « Les Revenants », une exposition artistique consacrée à la mémoire, à la culture et à la spiritualité vodun. Porté par Adétoyé Aguessy, le projet met en lumière les œuvres de l'artiste béninois Dimitri Fagbohoun, sous le commissariat de Éssé Dabla-Attikpo.
Les promoteurs affirment leur volonté de partager leur patrimoine culturel et spirituel avec le monde, en s'appuyant sur l'art contemporain comme vecteur de dialogue entre les peuples.
Une immersion dans la mémoire et la spiritualité Vodun
"Les Revenants" explore la relation entre l'homme, l'histoire et le sacré. Les œuvres présentées interrogent la mémoire collective et mettent en évidence la place centrale de la spiritualité vodun dans la construction des sociétés béninoises.
Pour l'artiste Dimitri Fagbohoun, le choix du titre est révélateur de cette démarche artistique et identitaire.« Le titre “Revenants” est né à partir de notre réflexion. Nous voulons partager la spiritualité du Bénin et sa culture avec le monde », explique-t-il.
À travers des formes symboliques et des références ancestrales, l'exposition invite le public à une lecture contemporaine du Vodun, loin des clichés, et recentrée sur ses valeurs de transmission et de continuité.
Un projet culturel à portée panafricaine
L'exposition s'inscrit également dans une dynamique de rapprochement entre le Bénin et le Ghana, deux pays liés par l'histoire, la géographie et les héritages culturels. Le thème du retour sur la terre africaine traverse l'ensemble du parcours artistique, avec pour ambition de renforcer les liens entre les peuples africains et ceux de la diaspora.
Le commissaire de l'exposition, Éssé Dabla-Attikpo, souligne la forte présence de la spiritualité dans les œuvres et la vocation itinérante du projet. À terme, Les Revenants pourrait être présentée au Bénin, permettant ainsi un retour symbolique de l'exposition vers son territoire d'origine.
Un initiative d'éducation culturelle
Initiateur du projet, Adétoyé Aguessy justifie son engagement par une volonté claire de valorisation du patrimoine béninois à l'étranger.« J'ai décidé de porter ce projet parce que je voulais rapprocher les peuples des deux pays, le Bénin et le Ghana, à travers l'histoire. Depuis 2019, le Ghana connaît un afflux important de touristes. En attendant que le monde entier visite le Bénin pour comprendre notre culture, nous avons choisi de porter cette culture à l'extérieur », explique-t-il.
Selon lui, l'exposition permet au public ghanéen, mais aussi aux nombreux touristes internationaux présents au Ghana, de découvrir une partie de la richesse culturelle et spirituelle du Bénin. Au-delà de l'événement artistique, le projet s'inscrit dans une démarche d'éducation culturelle, où l'art devient un langage universel au service du dialogue, de la mémoire et du rapprochement des peuples.
L'art comme outil de rayonnement du Bénin
Avec Les Revenants, les promoteurs utilisent l'art comme un levier de rayonnement culturel et identitaire au service de son pays, le Bénin. L'exposition se présente comme une vitrine de la culture vodun et une invitation à une meilleure compréhension des traditions béninoises par un public international.
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Yamide Dagnet, Senior Vice President, International at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Credit: COP30
By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Jan 15 2026 (IPS)
President Donald Trump has escalated efforts to further distance the United States from international organizations and entities focused on climate, the environment, and energy. This strategy is in step with his administration’s established approach to undermine and redirect funds and international cooperation away from climate and clean energy programs.
But where some see a catastrophic escalation, other global experts, such as Yamide Dagnet, Senior Vice President, International at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), see first and foremost a continuing formalization of damaging positions already taken by the current administration.
In January 2025, President Trump initiated a second withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change to limit global warming. Simultaneously, the U.S. administration began to significantly reduce funding for climate programs, withdrawing from international climate funds such as the Green Climate Fund, cancelling billions in domestic clean energy grants, halting climate research and, overall, prioritizing fossil fuels over climate initiatives.
While conceding that the moment at hand is indeed overwhelming, especially coming on the back of COP30, Dagnet told IPS that “the rest of the world must turn this challenge into an opportunity to break new ground in climate action, financing and international cooperation.”
“I have a stubborn yet grounded optimism. The path ahead will be challenging but achieving the set-out climate goals is far from impossible. This is far from a catastrophe. Only one country has withdrawn from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); the rest of the world is still firmly on board.”
Regarding the exit from UNFCCC, Dagnet’s colleague Jake Schmidt from NRDC, pointed out in his blog that the legal ramifications are such that it is unsettled constitutional law whether a president can unilaterally withdraw from international agreements that the Senate gave its advice and consent to join. The Constitution specifies the entry provisions, but it is silent on the exit provisions.
Dagnet also noted that while the withdrawal from the UNFCCC is unprecedented, making the United States the only nation outside the bedrock UN Climate Treaty, “the exit is not cast in stone; a future administration could bring the country back to the fold.”
Nevertheless, the United States will be back in the headlines come January 27, 2026, when the country will technically become a non-signatory to the Paris agreement and will not be part of international climate negotiations unless the withdrawal is reversed.
“The optimism I feel is also grounded in pragmatism. To borrow the words of author James Baldwin, ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’ The U.S. administration was not represented at COP30 and still the world pushed forward a comprehensive climate action agenda to move beyond pledges through accelerated collaboration between governments, businesses, civil society, and investors.”
In his 2025 inauguration speech, Trump called oil ‘liquid gold’ and vowed to ‘unleash’ America’s fossil fuels in the form of oil and gas. Dagnet says the die was already cast on the path forward for the United States and that the world should continue to rethink, re-strategize and reorganize, for those who are for climate action are more than those against.
Trump finds an assortment of 66 UN and non-UN entities, including those focused on climate and clean energy, that are not aligned with the United States’ national interests. They include the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is the world’s most authoritative scientific body on climate change, UN water, UN Oceans and UN Energy.
Others are the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which is the global authority on technical and policy advice on conservation, and the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing countries.
Non-UN organizations include the International Renewable Energy Agency, Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact, Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, and Sustainable Development, and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
Concerns are rife that communities such as those in the informal settlements will be dangerously exposed to the vagaries of climate change in the face of looming budget cuts to support climate efforts. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
There are widespread concerns that the withdrawal will have far-reaching negative consequences on financing and technical support for climate and clean energy. But Dagnet reminds us that the United States did not pay its dues to the UN in 2025. The UN Chief has expressed regret over the country’s exit from UN entities and urged the Trump administration to settle what is owed to the international body, as the payments are mandatory. The United States owes the largest share, amounting to about 22 percent of the regular budget.
Similarly, before this withdrawal, the United States was already failing to fulfill many of its climate finance commitments. While this new development, alongside past insufficient funding pledges, signals a major retreat from international climate action and support for developing nations, that challenge is not insurmountable.
Climate financing trackers found that even during President Joe Biden’s administration, the United States’ international climate finance contributions were insufficient and fell far short of goals. Dagnet notes that while the country’s actions on multilateralism represent a setback, multilateralism is also evolving and will hopefully be capable of navigating uncharted territories.
She hails the broad recognition that climate change urgently and sustainably requires global cooperation and collaboration. She further stressed that international cooperation would expand the climate finance basket, as financial support for climate action can come not only from governments but also from a diverse array of non-state and public-private actors.
“This withdrawal is not the end of the road.”
Dagnet is one of nine members of the GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Protocol Steering Committee, which is the primary governing body providing direction and oversight to the GHG Protocol. The Protocol provides accounting standards and tools to help the corporate sector, countries and cities track progress towards climate goals.
The development of such standards is facilitated through a transparent multi-stakeholder governance process, drawing on expertise from business, finance, governments, academia, auditors and civil society in a milestone move and landmark partnership, she says.
The GHG Protocol is leading the global harmonization of greenhouse gas accounting with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), as part of the COP30 Action Agenda, to enable comprehensive decarbonization action. This collaborative effort will strengthen the enabling conditions (in terms of policy, benchmarking, and governance) that are paramount to achieving sectoral breakthrough and will shape the journey towards the next global stocktake, or inventory taking, on progress towards climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement.
Subnational efforts also keep Dagnet pragmatically optimistic and solutions-focused. Indeed, she felt energized after attending the Resilient Cities Forum 2025 in London, a remarkable highlight as a major international platform where global leaders and experts converged to tackle urban resilience, emphasizing collaboration, best practices and practical innovation for sustainable, equitable cities. She was inspired by the various and clear visions for a healthier planet.
“The resolve was stronger than ever,” says Dagnet.
“Importantly, we have locally designed tools, international frameworks and corporate standards to turn our vision towards a more prosperous, healthier and greener future into our lived reality. The worst we can do is to give up our imagination and ability to innovate.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
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