U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday she cancelled plans to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman this week and instead will stay in Washington to help address the global finance crisis. Rice said Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte will represent the United States at the fifth annual Forum for the Future in Abu Dhabi on October 17-19, adding she was “disappointed” she cannot attend the event. “President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are obviously leading this very important effort [on the financial crisis], but there is an international aspect,” Rice told reporters in Washington. “I am doing what I can to help out.” Last week, the State Department announced that Rice would travel to the Gulf region, stopping in Muscat before heading to the forum in Abu Dhabi. The forum is co-chaired this year by the UAE and Japan, which holds the rotating presidency of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries.
