.

2021-02-05 22:28:35 Borrell was standing next to Lavrov when the Russian minister called the EU an “unreliable partner” and accused European leaders of lying about Navalny’s poisoning.

“I condemn in the strongest terms, from beginning to end, what has happened here — from the poisoning [of Navalny] to … the expulsion of diplomats. I think diplomatic tensions cannot be solved in this way and I declare my solidarity with the three countries whose diplomats have been expelled,” Macron said, adding that dialogue with Moscow was still important for “peace, security and stability” in Europe.

“I can only agree with this,” Merkel said, adding: “We consider what happened to [Navalny] to be far from the rule of law. We condemn his imprisonment and now also the expulsion of diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden.”

“We also … reserve the right to continue sanctions [against Russia], especially against individuals,” Merkel added.

However, asked whether Putin’s recent moves would derail the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project that has been criticized by a number of Germany’s allies including the U.S. and France, Merkel said her government’s position remains unchanged for the time being.

“But we share the opinion that we should not become unilaterally [energy] dependent on Russia,” the chancellor said, noting she thought it was “strategically imperative” to keep talking to Moscow.

“I believe that nothing can be said about [Nord Stream 2], which is now almost complete, without very close coordination between Germany and France,” Macron said.

“We will continue to work together to develop a European energy strategy that is more sovereign and also takes climate issues into account, and to have a strategic exchange with Russia, where we are also ambitious when it comes to energy,” he added.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also condemned the expulsions, saying the decision “further damages relations with Europe,” and that by attending the protest the German diplomat “was solely fulfilling his duty under the [Vienna Convention] to obtain information by lawful means about developments on the ground.”

“If the Russian Federation does not reconsider this step, it will not go unanswered,” he added.

Poland’s foreign ministry also released a statement, saying their diplomat was protesting “against corruption in the Russian Federation and expressing support for Alexei Navalny” and “will take appropriate steps” should the decision not be reversed.

“We refute Russia’s claim that the diplomat participated in the demonstration,” a Swedish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said, according to Reuters.

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2021-02-05 22:28:15 Merkel and Macron condemn Russia’s expulsion of diplomats over Navalny protests

German and French leaders said construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would continue regardless.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday condemned Russia’s decision to expel diplomats from Sweden, Germany and Poland over their participation in protests against the imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Speaking in Paris and Berlin after a virtual meeting on security policy and cooperation, Macron and Merkel jointly slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin over his treatment of Navalny.

Earlier Friday, Russia expelled the three EU diplomats — from Germany, Poland and Sweden — as EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. A statement from the European External Action Service said that Borrell learned of the expulsions “during” that meeting Open / Comment

2021-02-05 22:19:07 Macron also said “the coming semesters will be very critical for Chinese leaders and China,” given the Biden administration’s reengagement in multilateral frameworks like the World Health Organization.

“As the U.S. is reengaging itself, what will be the behavior of China?” Macron asked.

He pitched, once again, holding a summit of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — China, France, the U.S., U.K. and Russia. He had tried to hold such a summit in 2020 but it had fallen prey to Sino-American tensions and never materialized.

Macron was answering questions from a handful of U.S. think-tankers, professors and former officials via video link in a 90-minute session recorded at the Elysée on Wednesday afternoon.

The French president was the first European leader to make it a point to engage with China as a European bloc by including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and then-EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during a bilateral visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to France in March 2019.

Macron and European partners didn’t share the Trump administration’s outwardly aggressive stance on China, instead theorizing that it was at once a “partner, competitor and systemic rival.”

Macron said in the Atlantic Council discussion that China was a partner when it comes to climate change. When the Trump administration pulled out of the Paris climate agreement, China remained in it. The French president said Beijing was a competitor on trade and industrial issues and a systemic rival through its behavior in the “Indo-Pacific region and on values, human rights.”

One of the first executive orders that U.S. President Joe Biden signed after being inaugurated returned the U.S. to the Paris climate pact.

That offers up a new opportunity for engagement, Macron said.

“I think we have to engage China in a bold and efficient climate agenda. And I think the reengagement of the U.S. is a good occasion, as well, to have a proactive and — a discussion on that,” he said.

Macron said there was a need for “a global initiative on trade, industry, and intellectual property” through the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a group of mostly rich countries including France, and admitted that the investment agreement the EU and China signed in December 2020 “failed to deal with the IP issue. Let’s be lucid.”

On technology issues, Macron reiterated his long-held position not to “depend on a 100 percent Chinese solution.” He decided not to allow the deployment and use of Chinese 5G technology in strategic sectors in France. He also said: “I don’t want to depend on 100 percent U.S. decision. Otherwise, I will be put in a situation not to decide for the European continent itself.”

And Macron said there was a need to put pressure on China when it comes to human rights — an issue the Biden administration has been publicly forceful on — while France and other European countries have preferred a more discreet approach to China.

He defended the EU-China investment deal on this issue, amid criticism that the deal is weak on labor rights provisions at a time of mounting evidence of abuses at labor camps in Xinjiang against the Uighur minority.

“For the very first time, China accepted to engage on [International Labour Organization] regulation and to commit precisely on labor issues, which are part of our human rights package,” Macron said.

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2021-02-05 22:18:49 Macron: EU shouldn’t gang up on China with US
French president warns against creating ‘highest possible’ conflict.


PARIS — The EU shouldn’t gang up on China with the U.S. even if it stands closer to Washington by virtue of shared values, according to French President Emmanuel Macron.

“A situation to join all together against China, this is a scenario of the highest possible conflictuality. This one, for me, is counterproductive,” Macron said, speaking in English, during a discussion broadcast by Washington-based think tank the Atlantic Council on Thursday.

This kind of common front against China — as other European leaders have advocated given the new Biden administration’s revived openness to traditional alliances — risks pushing Beijing to lower its cooperation on issues like combatting climate change, and exacerbating its aggressive behavior in Asia, including in the South China Sea, according to the French president. Open / Comment

2021-02-04 22:04:00 During his first major foreign policy speech, Joe Biden on Thursday will announce an end to U.S. support for offensive operations in Yemen and a freeze on troop redeployments from Germany, an aide said. The announcements are part of an address at the State Department that aides say will signal a desire to strengthen alliances and reengage with multinational institutions.

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2021-02-04 19:01:31 Some EU leaders, including Angela Merkel, have criticized Facebook and Twitter's Trump bans.

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2021-02-04 16:24:37 Vienna-based Assadi had been accused of using his diplomatic privileges to help move explosives from Austria to Luxembourg, where they were handed to the couple. He was arrested at a gas station in Germany while on his way back to Austria.

During the trial, he refused to testify and invoked his diplomatic status. His lawyer said Assadi contested all charges, the Associated Press reported.

Critics of the Iranian regime as well as the head of the Belgian state security service have said Tehran masterminded the plot, which the country has denied.

“The ruling shows two things. A diplomat doesn’t have immunity for criminal acts … and the responsibility of the Iranian state in what could have been carnage,” Georges-Henri Beauthier, a prosecution lawyer, told Reuters after the verdict.

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2021-02-04 16:24:25 Belgian court sentences Iranian diplomat to 20 years in jail over bomb plot
The thwarted attack targeted Iranian regime opponents in France in 2018.

A Belgian court on Thursday convicted an Iranian diplomat of attempted terrorism over his role in a thwarted attack in 2018, a verdict likely to worsen relations between Brussels and Tehran.

Assadollah Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in a bomb plot targeting a rally by opponents of the Iranian regime in France.

Three accomplices — a Belgian-Iranian couple caught with explosives in their car on the day of the rally and another Belgian-Iranian man meant to guide the couple once in France — were also given jail sentences. Open / Comment

2021-02-03 15:00:16 Biden signs executive orders on family separation and asylum

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed executive orders to launch a long-awaited task force to reunite families separated at the border under the Trump administration, as well as begin a review of a Trump-era program that has forced tens of thousands of people to remain in Mexico while their asylum cases are processed.

The task force, as first described by senior administration officials, falls short of what immigrant advocates and human rights groups have been urging the Biden administration to do. The ACLU has called on the Biden administration to allow families that were separated to settle in the U.S., be given some type of legal status and have access to funds for basic needs and medical care.

“There’s no ‘one solution fits all,’” a senior administration official said.

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2021-02-03 13:13:25 New York City is digging out from the biggest snowstorm in five years but some residents say the nor’easter provided a change of pace from the pandemic and was a relief.

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