Brussels, 05/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - “President Obama and I continue to believe that Europe is the cornerstone of our engagement with the rest of the world and is the catalyst for our global cooperation. It's that basic. Nothing has changed”, American Vice-President Joe Biden said at the conference on security in Munich on 3 February. He added: “This European alliance is critical to our interests”. “You remain, to state the obvious, America's oldest and closest allies. And it's hard to imagine a single threat or a single opportunity that cannot be addressed more effectively if we do so together”, he told Europeans.
“Time and time again, when it comes to a search for partners in this extremely complex world, Europe and America still look to each other before they look anywhere else”, he added. “We need to work together. We need to stick together. We need you as much as you need us. Neither the United States nor any other country can alone address the challenges we face. We know that. Europe remains America's indispensable partner of first resort”, he stated.
Biden said that the US commitment to the rest of the world, particularly Asia is “very much in Europe's interest”. He added that for the next four years - the length of President Obama's second term of office - the EU and the USA will have to work together on many challenges. “America, North America and Europe have to meet these security challenges of the modern world together. And we will continue to do so”, he said. (CG/transl.fl)