FRANCE PRESSE
Iran‚ North Korea and ties with EU on John Kerry's agenda
WASHINGTON: America’s top diplomat John Kerry began his first official trip as secretary of state today, a marathon get-acquainted tour of America’s closest allies in Europe and the Middle East.
A plane carrying the new US secretary of state and his team took off from
Joint Base Andrews outside Washington at 1215 GMT.A plane carrying the new US secretary of state and his team took off from
Kerry will visit the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar from February 24 to March 6. The first stop will be London, where Kerry will meet senior British officials, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Friday. Kerry travels on to Berlin where, in addition to meeting Germans, he will encounter his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, for a tricky exchange at a time when Moscow and Washington are at loggerheads on many issues.
“Obviously, they know each other well from when Secretary Kerry was Senator Kerry, but it will be their first opportunity to sit down bilaterally as foreign ministers,” Nuland said.
Nuland said: “I would expect they’ll talk about all of the issues — bilateral, regional, global — but with a particular emphasis, I would expect, on Syria, Iran, North Korea.”
Among the issues high on his agenda during the marathon series of talks is a newly-announced effort to agree a mammoth free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union. Obama announced the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership in his annual State of the Union address last month, and said the agreement would boost economic growth and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.
Kerry travels from Germany to Paris, where Nuland said he would meet senior French officials to discuss American assistance for France’s ongoing military operation against Islamist rebels in Mali. On his next stop, in Rome, Kerry will concentrate on multilateral talks on the crisis in Syria. Kerry will travel to Ankara for meetings with Turkish officials on a range of strategic issues, including Syria. His travels conclude in the Middle East.
In Egypt, Kerry will meet political and business leaders and the secretary general of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi. He will then go to Riyadh for meeting with Saudi leaders on a broad range of shared concerns.
Kerry then visits Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, and Doha, Qatar, key contacts for America as it confronts crises in Syria, Afghanistan, and the Middle East peace process.
