EU Council President Donald Tusk meets with Barack Obama, President of the USA, & press statements

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• published: 10 Mar 2015
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EN - Donald TUSK, President of the European Council meets with Barack OBAMA, President of the United States and press statements - 09.03.2015 - Washington, USA. Barack Obama: "It's a great pleasure to work with Donald Tusk in his new job ; I had outstanding experiences working with him during the time when he was PM of Poland, one of our closest allies, and I was consistently impressed with his outstanding work and his strong support for the Transatlantic Alliance ; we are very pleased that he is carrying on those same skills and values to the European Council. (...) The major topic of conversation today will be the situation in Ukraine. We are all committed to making sure that we uphold the basic principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity that have been threatened by Russian aggression, we're being able to maintain strong unity with respect to sanctions? We very much appreciate the work that 's been done by Chancelor Angela Merkel and President François Hollande to establish a Minsk process, but we also know from experiences over the last year that unless we have strong monitoring and strong implementation, these agreements will be meaningless. (...) We will also discuss about the significant challenges that the Ukrainian economy faces. We have to make sure that the 90% of Ukraine that is still effectively governed by Kiev is able to succeed. (...) We share concerns about global growth a the global economy, this will be an occasion to highlight the opportunities of strengthening trade through the Transatlantic Trade Agreement (TTIP/TAFTA) that is currently being discussed between the 2 parties. We'll have a chance to discuss the situation in Greece and what can be done to bolster European growth. (...) We'll have the opportunity to discuss about (...) the situation in Libya, the situation in Iraq, the need for us to be unified in our fight against ISIL, but also to work effectively to prevent foreign fighters from getting to Syria, as well as foreign fighters leaving Syria and coming back to Europe and the US and actually endangering our fellow citizens. (...)" Donald Tusk: "(...) Second, we have to stop violent extremism spreading in Africa, we must hep Libya, because we cannot have a failed State run by warlords and fanatics stepping into anarchy just 100 miles off the southern coasts of Europe. (...) (...) Ukraine: now today we are united on (...) our determination to maintain sanctions on Russia until the Minsk Agreement is fully implemented. Brutal history has returned to us, brutal history and the politics of "fait accompli". This is why I think it is so important that (...) we have to not only speak in one voice, but also to act in unison. Because who we are tomorrow depends on what we do today, and I deeply believe that now is the best time for some kind of 'renaissance' of faith in our community. I'd like to express this with the most convincing phrase I know: "United we stand, divided we fall". Thank you very much." © Frédérick Moulin 2015 - EU2015 - Council - All rights reserved.