Biden opens up about traveling from Europe to the US: ‘I’ll answer you soon’ – Corriere.it

From Biden and Merkel’s joint press conference came some promises to Cuba and a signal to Europeans that had been waiting for months. The US President had announced that American technicians will try to restore the Internet that was cut off by the “failed Cuban regime” besieged by the protests. The first man in the White House also wants vaccines to be sent to the island, as long as “there is an international organization capable of managing them.” The problem is that this organization does not exist at the moment. The government of Havana has not joined the Covax consortium, the global alliance to distribute doses to the most difficult countries. There is also interesting news for the European Union. “In a few days” Biden will listen to the “team of virologists” and decide whether to reopen the borders to vaccinated Europeans. It is one of the requests made yesterday by Angela Merkel, during a summit that endorsed a change of style (not just the tone) in US-German relations.

The two leaders put it on one principle: We value the things we stand for We agree (and there are many) without easing cooperation because we don’t agree on everything. Exactly the opposite of what happened in Trump season. Concretely: The governments of the USA and Germany will work together on the global distribution of vaccines, the “global minimum tax”, and the re-establishment of transatlantic trade relations. In addition to the most sensitive files such as the Iranian nuclear file and the withdrawal from Afghanistan. There are still fundamental differences over Russia and China. However, at the summit there were some concessions on both sides. Biden remains opposed to the North Stream 2, the now-completed gas pipeline that will connect Russia and Germany directly. The US president understood that he would not be able to stop the process. But he demanded political guarantees: the exclusive supply of Russian gas should not soften Berlin’s political stance towards Moscow. Merkel stressed at the joint press conference that she “will not rule out” the Kremlin, whether cyber security or Ukraine’s territorial integrity is at stake. Then the chancellor received a response from Biden on China: “We share the idea that in many areas we are competing with Beijing. Moreover, we must work to “ensure that China respects international trade rules.”