Belgium

14 June 2021; MEMO: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with US President Joe Biden in a closed-door meeting on Monday during the NATO summit in Brussels, Anadolu Agency reported.

The one-on-one meeting at the NATO headquarters lasted for 45 minutes. The two leaders met for the first time since Biden took office in January.

Meetings between the delegations started following the meeting of two leaders.

BRUSSELS, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has administered more than 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Tuesday on Twitter.

"We have passed 300 million vaccinations in the EU. Every day, we get closer to our goal: to have enough doses delivered to vaccinate 70 percent of adults in the EU next month," she tweeted.

As of Monday, 53.3 percent of the EU adults had received at least one dose, and 353 million doses had been delivered to the 27-state bloc.

BRUSSELS, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Mission to the European Union (EU) on Monday rejected NATO's claim of presenting "systemic challenges," saying it is a slander on China's peaceful development and represents "a continuation of the Cold War mentality and bloc politics."

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Chinese mission said China is committed to a defense policy "that is defensive in nature," and its pursuit of defense and military modernization is "justified, reasonable, open and transparent."

BRUSSELS (AP) — President Joe Biden is seeking to tamp down trade tensions with European allies as he spends one last day consulting with western democracies ahead of his highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After a pair of summits with Group of Seven world leaders in the U.K. and then NATO allies in Brussels, Biden meets Tuesday with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

BRUSSELS, June 14. /TASS/: The summit of heads of NATO states on Monday in Brussels with the participation of US President Joe Biden, is set to "fix up" the alliance after the previous administration of Donald Trump, a diplomatic source in Brussels told TASS on Monday.

(Reuters) --- Michel Barnier, the European Union's former Brexit negotiator, said on Monday that the reputation of the United Kingdom was at stake regarding tensions over Brexit.

EU politicians have accused British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of not respecting engagements made regarding Brexit. Growing tensions between Britain and the EU threatened to overshadow the Group of Seven summit on Sunday, with London accusing France of "offensive" remarks that Northern Ireland was not part of the UK. 

BRUSSELS (AP) — President Joe Biden frequently talks about what he sees as central in executing effective foreign policy: building personal relationships.

But unlike his four most recent White House predecessors, who made an effort to build a measure of rapport with Vladimir Putin, Biden has made clear that the virtue of fusing a personal connection might have its limits when it comes to the Russian leader.

BRUSSELS (AP) — President Joe Biden makes his entrance at a NATO summit aiming to consult European allies on efforts to counter provocative actions by China and Russia while highlighting the U.S. commitment to the 30-country alliance that was frequently maligned by predecessor Donald Trump.

The summit Monday comes as Biden tries to rally allies for greater coordination in checking China and Russia, two adversaries whose actions on economic and national security fronts have become the chief foreign policy concerns in the early going of the Biden presidency.

BRUSSELS, June 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Following the forced landing of a plane travelling between two EU capitals and the arrest of blogger Roman Protasevich in Belarus, the European Parliament has called for further sanctions on the hardline regime in Minsk.

Punitive measures should be taken against the crude oil-processing industry, the production of petroleum products, and the potash, steel and wood-processing industries, it said in a resolution adopted on Thursday.

12 June 2021; MEMO: Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced that his country had recently sent a consular mission to northeastern Syria to prepare for the return of Belgian children still detained there with their jihadist mothers.

In his statements on Thursday, De Croo stressed the need to move quickly due to the deterioration of living and security conditions in the two camps.