Brussels, 04/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, is in Brussels on 4-6 March for important EU and NATO meetings. On Wednesday evening she is expected to take part in the “trans-Atlantic dinner” with foreign affairs ministers from European NATO member states (the Finish, Swedish and Swiss will also take part in this informal meeting). In the morning of Thursday 5 March, she will take part in her first ministerial NATO meeting for preparing the summit at the beginning of April. In the afternoon, she will have a meeting with the president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso and the Commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
On Friday 6 March, Ms Clinton will meet the EU ministerial troika, currently comprising the Czech foreign minister, Karel Schwarzenberg, the EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and the Swedish foreign affairs minister, Carl Bildt (Sweden will hold the next presidency of the EU). Five major subjects will be on this meeting's agenda: relations with Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, the Middle East peace process and preparation for the special EU/US summit on 5 April in Prague, which will be attended by Barrack Obama. Ms Clinton will also meet the president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, where she will take part in a debate with young Europeans. She will then go to Geneva to meet her Russia and Swiss counterparts, Sergey Lavrov and Micheline Calmey-Rey. The US Secretary of State will conclude her European trip with a visit to Turkey, where she will meet president Abdullah Güll, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the foreign minister Ali Babacan.
The White House has also announced that US vice president, Joe Biden, will be in Brussels next week (very probably 9/10 March) to take part in a North Atlantic Council meeting. He is also expected to have meetings with José Manuel Barroso and Javier Solana. (H.B./trans/rh)