Global

The special relationship between the US and the UK was reaffirmed today at a meeting of US President Joe Biden and the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, ahead of the G7 summit starting Friday in Cornwall. After the talks Johnson said there is “so much” the US presidential team want to do together with the UK, including security, NATO and climate change.

A sixth round of talks in Vienna between Iran and several global actors is resuming this week in an effort to bring Iran and the JCPOA countries to an agreement on nuclear issues. Iran has expressed its desire to reach an agreement as soon as possible but several obstacles still exist according to Iranian sources. 

EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, has just returned from Indonesia where he met the country's leaders, and also had talks with ASEAN – the regional grouping of South East Asian countries. Writing on his blog, Borrell explains why the Indo-Pacific Region is so important for Europe. He argues that, "If we want to be a geopolitical actor, we also have to be perceived as a political and security actor in the region, not just as a development cooperation, trading or investment partner."

Senior officials from the two countries "agreed that Turkey and the U.S. should continue joint efforts to maintain peace and stability in regions, including Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine", Turkish sources said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov approached their first face-to-face meeting, which took place in Iceland on Wednesday (19 May), with caution, and gently started getting to know each other. The two senior diplomats have many more meetings in front of them as they try to adjust US-Russia relations.

Washington is against Nord Stream 2, but sanctions against the company are not in the national interest, The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.