Biden plans first trip abroad as president in June to Europe
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will embark on his first overseas trip in office in June, the White House announced Friday, with the aim of demonstrating his administration’s commitment to the transatlantic alliance and reengagement with key allies.
Biden will attend the Group of Seven summit in Cornwall, England, set for June 11-13, followed by a visit to Brussels, where he will hold meetings with European Union leadership and attend the June 14 summit of leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The meetings with the United States’ closest allies come as Biden has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to a summit in the coming months in a third country, though no date has yet been set.
Most recent American presidents have selected North American neighbors for their first cross-border trips, though former President Donald Trump, whose penchant for unilateral action and open skepticism of the NATO alliance unsettled American allies, made his first overseas stop in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. For Biden, the first trip is meant to turn the page from Trump’s approach to alliances.
Biden, for his part, held “virtual bilateral” meetings with the leaders of Canada and Mexico in February and March, respectively.
The June trip will follow after Biden’s first in-person bilateral meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House last week and next month’s planned visit by President Moon Jae-in of South Korea.
In Cornwall, Biden will hold bilateral meetings with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other leaders. He will hold additional one-on-one meetings in Brussels with NATO allies, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Afghan withdrawal: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has decided to keep an aircraft carrier in the Middle East to help provide protection for American and coalition troops during their planned withdrawal from Afghanistan in coming weeks, his spokesman said Friday.
The spokesman, John Kirby, said Austin approved an extension of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower’s deployment in the Middle East for “a period of time.” He also said two U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers have arrived in the region as part of the pre-pullout bolstering of security, which he called a prudent precaution.
“It would be foolhardy and imprudent not to assume that there could be resistance and opposition to the drawdown by the Taliban, given their staunch rhetoric,” Kirby said. He said the withdrawal plan was discussed at a meeting Friday of senior defense officials.
The moves back up Pentagon officials’ public assurances that U.S. forces will be prepared to meet whatever resistance the Taliban might present during the withdrawal of more than 10,000 U.S. and coalition troops starting after May 1. About 2,500 to 3,500 of those troops are American.
Search for missing Indonesia sub: Indonesia’s navy scoured the waters off Bali on Friday, bolstered by the arrival of a sonar-equipped
Some strings attached:
Australian warship with a helicopter, in an increasingly frantic search for a missing submarine with only hours left in its oxygen supply for its 53 crew members.
The KRI Nanggala 402 went missing after its last reported dive Wednesday off the resort island, and concern is mounting it may have sunk too deep to reach or recover in time.
The navy chief said the submarine was expected to run out of oxygen early Saturday.
There have been no signs of life from the submarine, but family members held out hope that the massive search effort would find the vessel in time.
Twenty-four Indonesian ships and a patrol plane were mobilized for the search Friday, focusing on the area where an oil slick was found after the submarine disappeared during an exercise. Rescuers made similar massive searches in the previous two days.
Migrants
feared
dead:
More than 100 Europebound migrants are feared dead in a boat wreck off Libya, independent rescue groups and the U.N. migration agency said, as attempts to cross the Mediterranean increase during the warmer months.
Humanitarian organizations have accused the Libyan coast guard and European authorities of failing to meet their responsibilities to save lives. A Libyan coast guard official told The Associated Press that the guard searched for the boat but could not find it with its limited resources.
SOS Mediterranee, which operates the rescue vessel Ocean Viking, said late Thursday that the capsized rubber boat, which was initially carrying around 130 people, was spotted in the Mediterranean Sea northeast of the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The aid vessel did not find any survivors, but could see at least 10 bodies near the wreck.
French police official stabbed: French authorities opened a terrorism investigation and detained three people after a police official was stabbed to death inside a police station outside Paris. Officers shot and killed the attacker at the scene Friday, authorities said.
The attack stunned the quiet residential neighborhood near the famed historic chateau of Rambouillet, and prompted renewed French government promises to fight extremism and protect police.
Anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard told reporters that his office took over the probe because the attacker had staked out the station ahead of time, because of statements he made during the attack and because he targeted a police official.
Ricard did not provide details on the attacker’s identity, motive or purported terrorist ties.
French media reports identified the attacker as a 37-year-old French resident
KOJI UEDA/AP with no criminal record or record of radicalization.
Russian troops begin pullback: Russian troops began pulling back to their permanent bases Friday after a massive buildup that caused Ukrainian and Western concerns.
On Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared the sweeping maneuvers in Crimea and wide swaths of western Russia over, and ordered the military to bring the troops that took part in them back to their bases by May 1.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the announcement.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that its forces that took part in the massive drills in Crimea were moving to board trains, transport aircraft and landing vessels en route to their permanent bases.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would await intelligence confirmation of the pullback.