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United States President Joe Biden, facing a dual crisis near his country’s borders, on Thursday declared Cuba “a failed state” and said sending US forces to Haiti was not his business. agenda for the moment.
Protesters have been demonstrating in Cuba since Sunday as anger grows over commodity shortages, power and internet outages, restrictions on civil liberties and the government’s handling of an increase in HIV infections. COVID-19. The difficulties are exacerbated by a decades-old US trade embargo that is being revised by the Biden administration.
“Cuba is, unfortunately, a failed state and is cracking down on its citizens,” Biden said Thursday at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House.
Amid calls from Republicans and Biden’s fellow Democrats to restore internet services in Cuba, Biden said his administration was looking into the matter.
“They cut off access to the Internet. We are looking at whether we have the technological capacity to restore that access, ”Biden said.
Meanwhile, calls have been made for the United States to send troops to Haiti after President Jovenel Moise was gunned down early on July 7 at his home in Port-au-Prince by what Haitian authorities describe as a unit of assassins, including 26 Colombians and two Haitians. Americans.
The assassination plunged the already troubled Caribbean nation into chaos, coming amid an upsurge in gang violence that has displaced thousands of people and hampered economic activity in the poorest country in the Americas.
Biden made it clear that the United States “only sends US Marines to our embassy” for security purposes.
“The idea of sending American forces to Haiti is not on the agenda at the moment. “
Biden-Merkel meeting
Biden welcomed Merkel to the White House on Thursday to discuss disagreements over Russia and China as the two leaders seek to strengthen a relationship that has suffered under former President Donald Trump.
The United States and Germany are key NATO allies. Biden and Merkel have known and worked together for years.
But their two governments disagree on a host of difficult issues, including the Nord Stream 2 pipeline being built between Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea, which Washington says will hurt Ukraine and increase dependency. European vis-à-vis Russian gas.
They also disagree over the wisdom of partnering with China on trade plans, restrictions on travel to the United States from Europe, and Germany’s opposition to temporary patent waivers aimed at speeding up the process. COVID-19 vaccine production.
On the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, “They have not resolved their differences, in particular the United States entered this meeting knowing that this was going to be a sticking point between the two leaders and it seems they didn’t. ‘found no common ground, “Al Jazeera White House correspondent Kimberly Halkett said.
Merkel told reporters that Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has different views on the US pipeline. But she said Berlin sees Ukraine as a transit country, which obviously means she believes natural gas should still flow through Ukraine, even if the pipeline is completed.
Merkel said there are a “number of instruments” Europe can take, including sanctions, if Russia does not honor its commitments to Ukraine on the pipeline.
Russia has said the $ 11 billion pipeline, led by state-owned energy company Gazprom and its Western partners, will be completed later this year.
Biden said “good friends may disagree” on a project like Nord Stream 2 and that the two leaders have asked their teams to look at practical steps countries can take on the pipeline if energy security is Ukraine is weakened.
Biden, 78, and Merkel, 66, agree on a range of broader issues, and both want to strengthen the transatlantic relationship that has suffered under Trump’s frequent and scathing criticism of his close allies the United States.
Merkel, chancellor since 2005, plans to leave the German government after the national elections in September, which means she will likely be seen as a “lame duck” in her final months in office.
Polls show the Christian Democrats are set to take the lead in forming a government after the election, but it is still unclear which parties would be included in a coalition.
Biden’s Democratic Party has slim majorities in the U.S. Congress that could evaporate in the 2022 legislative election.
Merkel’s visit to the White House – the first by a European leader since Biden took office in January – showed the United States was trying to redeem itself with an ally that had often come under attack during the Trump years .
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