US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday 7 October that his country and the European Union were “aligned” in calling for energy supplies from producer countries to match demand fuelled by the post-emergency health recovery.
“The United States is really concerned that, for a variety of reasons, supply is not keeping pace with the recovery in demand” for oil or gas, Mr Sullivan told reporters after a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels. He refused to say that Russia was behind the current spike in gas prices but noted that Moscow had “a history of using energy prices as a tool of coercion, as a political weapon.”.
Asked about the recent turbulence in transatlantic relations caused by the Allies’ precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the AUKUS security pact, Mr Sullivan said the US and EU were back on a “positive track” after intense diplomatic negotiations, although he acknowledged that “we could have improved the method of consultation” on the defence alliance between Washington, London, and Canberra.
Mr Sullivan cited several successes since the Biden administration took office—the Airbus/Boeing deal, the EU-US and NATO summits, the Joint Trade and Technology Council, bilateral climate cooperation, and the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic—as evidence of America’s “complete commitment to diplomacy, to consultation”.
As for the lack of consideration that Washington might show for the Europeans’ positions, Mr Sullivan said the Europeans had been right that the US should not have left the JCPOA or the Paris Agreement, both of which were decided by the previous Trump administration. And to achieve a convergence of views in the future, especially on the challenge posed by China, “each of us is going to have to understand and to make adjustments for the interests and perspectives of the other”, he said.
On the strategic autonomy that the EU is trying to develop without breaking with its transatlantic ally, Mr Sullivan referred to the joint statement by Presidents Biden and Macron at the end of September, in which “the United States recognises the importance of a stronger, a more capable European defence”. “Capability is the key here. Key European countries working to develop enhanced capabilities that are interoperable and that can be deployed in service of a larger common mission, this is fundamentally a positive thing from the USA’s perspective”, the American diplomat added.
On the evacuation of Westerners and Afghans at risk after the Taliban takeover from Afghanistan, the security adviser stressed that the US was continuing to relocate them week after week. We have evacuated “124,000 people” and will continue to do so, he said. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)