Question time: Strengthening transatlantic ties in a challenging multilateral world

Summary:

Transatlantic ties have seen a considerable boost since Joe Biden became the 46th US President in 2021, with the US re-embracing multilateralism to varying degrees as a means to tackle multiple crises such as climate change, global food insecurity, strategic competition with China, and Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. However, challenges in the transatlantic relationship have remained, as the EU and the US have chosen different means to achieve their climate change targets, to address supply chain vulnerabilities and to ensure their global competitive edge, with both legislating in line with the constraints of their political economies.

Issues linked to these challenges and the coordination of the EU and the US approaches to China and their response to China's potential delivery of lethal weapons to Russia, if there were evidence of this, were on the agenda of recent EU-US meetings. Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis met US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on 2 March, and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President Biden then met on 10 March 2023.

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