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| - President Joe Biden will join the European Union summit by video link on Thursday, in the new US leader's first direct talks with all 27 EU counterparts. "I have invited the President of the US to join our meeting for him to share his views on our future cooperation," European Council president and summit host Charles Michel tweeted. "Time to rebuild our transatlantic alliance." In a statement, the White House said Biden would "engage with European Union leaders about his desire to revitalise US-EU relations, work together to combat the pandemic and address climate change, and deepen the world's largest trade and investment relationship." "He will also discuss shared foreign policy interests, including China and Russia," it added. An EU spokesman said Biden's intervention was planned for 8:45pm (1945 GMT). The EU leaders are due to meet on Thursday and Friday for their regular European Council summit, held by video conference as a coronavirus safety measure. They are due to discuss their troubled roll out of Covid vaccines on Thursday, before moving on to foreign policy and security crises. But the meeting also comes as Brussels and Washington try to repair ties that frayed under Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, who regularly clashed with Brussels and EU capitals over tax, trade and defence spending. Washington's top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is in Brussels for talks at NATO headquarters and will meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday. Biden's first physical visit to Europe is expected to be for the G7 summit in Cornwall, England on June 11 to 13, and he has been invited to attend a NATO summit at around the same time. dc/del/tgb
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