Statement by President von der Leyen following her phone call with President of the United States Joe Biden

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I was glad to speak to President Biden this afternoon – the first of many exchanges and the start of a good personal partnership.

As a symbol of this fresh start, President Biden and I agreed to suspend all our tariffs imposed in the context of the Airbus-Boeing disputes, both on aircraft and non-aircraft products, for an initial period of 4 months.

We both committed to focus on resolving our aircraft disputes, based on the work our respective trade representatives. This is excellent news for businesses and industries on both sides of the Atlantic, and a very positive signal for our economic cooperation in the years to come.

President Biden and I also discussed the many challenges we share as allies:

First, the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines. The EU and the US are both major producers of vaccines and we have a strong interest in working together, for the good functioning of global supply chains.

To better prepare the world to face future pandemics and improve health security worldwide, I invited President Biden to the Global Health Summit in Rome on 21 May.

We then discussed our cooperation on climate action and our joint responsibility to protect the planet. I warmly thanked President Biden for re-joining the Paris Agreement. We agreed to engage on the issue ahead of COP26 in Glasgow this year. In that context, I will be happy to greet John Kerry to the next College meeting. I thanked President Biden for the invitation to attend the Earth Day Climate Summit that he is convening.

Then, we discussed the future of our economic relationship. I proposed a new partnership rooted in our shared values and principles.

I also proposed to set up a ministerial-level Trade and Technology Council to address innovation challenges. I see this as the key forum to build our transatlantic technology alliance.

On foreign policy, we agreed to step up our cooperation as like-minded partners and support democracy, stability and prosperity against the backdrop of a fast-changing international environment. We will do so in close cooperation with NATO.

We share a strategic outlook on Russia. I suggested that we closely coordinate our policies and measures with respect to Eastern Europe, in particular. We shared our views on the situation in Ukraine.