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The European Union’s foreign ministers expressed their solidarity with France on the agreement on submarines.
Brussels:
Tensions rocked the Western alliance on Monday as European Union leaders backed France in its anger over a canceled mega-contract, but US President Joe Biden responded to a key European grievance by easing travel restrictions of Covid.
Tensions within the transatlantic alliance eclipsed the start of the UN General Assembly week, with Biden hoping to turn the page on Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency and rally allies in the face of a rising China.
Biden, who will address the summit on Tuesday, is also seeking to step up his actions in the fight against the pandemic and climate change, and forge global unity in Afghanistan, where the Taliban quickly took control after withdrawing US troops last month.
But tensions with France suddenly took center stage after Australia last week canceled a multibillion-dollar contract for French submarines, opting instead for US nuclear submarines as part of the scheme. a new three-way alliance with Washington and London.
European Council chief Charles Michel said the bloc would seek answers, saying allies must be sure of “transparency and trust”.
“We observe a glaring lack of transparency and loyalty,” he told reporters.
With Trump, “at least it was very clear – the tone, the substance, the language – it was very clear that the EU was not in his view a useful partner, a useful ally,” Michel said.
The European Union’s foreign ministers, meeting in New York, “have clearly expressed their solidarity with France”, declared senior European diplomat Josep Borrell.
“This announcement goes against calls for greater cooperation with the European Union in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has accused the United States of treason and Australia of stabbing in the back, and has not scheduled a separate meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Le Drian called on Europeans to “think about” alliances, saying the contract showed “the lingering reflexes of an era we hoped to be over.”
U.S. officials noted that Blinken will see Le Drian in a group Wednesday during Iran talks amid last-minute efforts to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal.
Asked about a bilateral meeting, Erica Barks-Ruggles, a senior State Department official, said “the schedule will remain dynamic.”
Biden also plans to speak by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron, one of many leaders who skip the General Assembly due to Covid precautions, on “the way forward,” another official said.
Respond to European concerns
U.S. officials said Blinken, a French-speaking who grew up in Paris, sought to limit the damage on Friday in a conversation with the French ambassador in Washington before the latter was recalled to Paris for consultations. of protest.
Officials said Blinken also voiced continued concerns from France and other allies over a ban on European travelers imposed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a significant reversal, the Biden administration has announced it will ease the Covid travel ban for all air passengers as long as they are fully vaccinated and undergo testing and contact tracing.
The European Union, keen to avoid a second summer without American tourists, relaxed its own rules months ago and threatened to reimpose them, angry that the United States did not reciprocate.
European powers, including Germany – which has been cautious in its remarks on the EU-France feud – have welcomed the change in travel.
Biden took office promising to defeat the pandemic, but has increasingly faced political pressure as sections of the American public stubbornly refuse vaccinations and the Delta variant once again sends the number of cases increasing.
Biden will hold a special virtual summit on Wednesday on ways to end the pandemic, with the United States seeking a leadership role after already donating more than 100 million doses of the Covid vaccine overseas.
Barks-Ruggles said the summit aimed to see how “to have bigger ambitions to get vaccines up to speed quickly.”
Hoping to prevent the spread of the Covid, authorities in New York have asked that all visitors to the UN be vaccinated.
One person who challenged the recommendation was Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who flew in despite his vaccine skepticism.
On the eve of the summit, he was spotted eating pizza on a New York City street, apparently denied entry due to the city’s vaccination rules for restaurants.
(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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