Live: Biden and German Chancellor Merkel Hold Press Conference | NBC News

thank you all please have a seat today uh it's been my great honor and i mean that to welcome a dear friend back to the white house and before i uh say anything else chancellor merkel i want to express to you and to uh the people of germany my sincere condolences and the condolences of the american people for the devastating loss of life and the destruction due to the flooding over the past 24 hours in germany and neighboring countries it's a tragedy and our heart goes out our hearts go out to the families who've lost loved ones chancellor merkel has been here frequently over the past 16 years matter of fact she knows the oval office as well as i do but all kidding aside through though this administration she's been there for four years but for four presidents but i want to take a moment to acknowledge the historic nature of her chancellorship first woman chancellor in german history the first chancellor from the former east germany and now the second largest longest serving chancellor since helmut cole here's an exemplary life of groundbreaking service to germany and i might add and i mean it from the bottom of heart to the world on behalf of the united states thank you angla for your career of a strong principled leadership and thank you for speaking out for what is right and for never failing to defend human dignity i want to thank you for your continued support for the long standing goal of europe whole free and at peace you've been a stalwart champion of the transatlantic alliance the atlantic partnership under your chancellorship the friendship and cooperation between germany united states has grown stronger and stronger and i'm looking forward to celebrating more at our dinner this evening but today was very much a working visit chancellor merkel and i covered a wide range of issues where germany and the united states are working to advance a shared agenda we discussed together with our fellow major democracies at the g7 germany in the united states have responsibilities to lead with our values as to the other members of nato and today i've i've confided that in our new washington declaration which we've codified a document affirming our commitment to the democratic principles that are heart that are at the heart of both of our nations and how we will apply them to meet the biggest challenges of today and tomorrow both our nations both our nations understand the imperative of proving that democracies can deliver the needs of our people in the second quarter of the 21st century we will stand up for democratic principles and universal rights when we see china or any other country working to undermine free and open societies and we are united united in our commitment to addressing democratic backsliding corruption phony populism in the european union or among candidates for the eu membership or anywhere we find it in the world we agree on the importance of further integrating the western balkans into the european european institutions and in our continued support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of ukraine as well as the continued importance of reforms in the support of their euro-atlantic aspirations we stand together and we'll continue to stand together to defend our eastern flank allies at nato against russian aggression and while i regretted my while i reiterated my concerns about nordstrom 2 sensor merkel and i are absolutely united in our conviction that russia must not be allowed to use energy as a weapon to coerce or threaten its neighbors and today we're launching a climate and energy partnership to support energy security and the development of sustainable energy sustainable energy technologies and emerging and emerging economies including in central europe and ukraine to unite our efforts to up end and on our global climate ambitions that we have to up the ante what happened is we talked about when paris accord was set we thought we had established just how serious it was but things have gotten much more dire since even that day and to unite our efforts to update to up the antion global climate on global climate ambitions i also thank chancellor merkel for the dedication and the sacrifice of german troops who have served side by side along with u.s forces in afghanistan for almost 20 years and we reaffirmed our shared commitment to continuing to counter terrorist threats where we find them including in the sahara in africa and we when we think about the future the future we want for the world there's no issue there's no issue said at all that i believe we find anything other than the certainty that a commitment that between the united states and germany doesn't benefit whatever the problem the concern is we need to fight cover 19 pandemic everywhere to strengthen global health security for tomorrow so we're ready for the next pandemic we need to make sure that the rules of the road governing the use of emerging technologies advance freedom not authoritarianism and repression we need to promote a sustainable and inclusive economic recovery that enhances the prosperity and opportunity for all and so much more this just this isn't just a work of governments the workers work of our peoples sharing their innovation and insights joining together to amplify our collective impact so today we're launching a futures forum between our two countries which will bring together top experts across business academia civil society and more to collaborate as we shape our shared future madam chancellor i know that the partnership between germany and the united states will continue to grow stronger on the foundation that you've helped to build but on a personal note i must tell you i'll miss seeing you at our summits i truly will so thank you again angela for making the journey for our productive meeting today [Music] foreign [Music] foreign m [Music] foreign um be engaged in the minsk process we will be actively acting should russia not respect this right of ukraine um that it has as a transit country so north stream 2 is an additional project and certainly not a project to replace any kind of transit through ukraine anything else would obviously create a lot of tension and we're also talking about how we can actually make this very clear together we also talked about other priorities in our foreign policy for example our relationship with china we are countries who stand up for free democratic societies stand up for those right civic rights for those who live in these societies so wherever human rights are not guaranteed we will make our voices heard and make clear that we don't agree with this we are also for territorial integrity of all countries of the world we also talked about the many facets of cooperation and also of competition with china be it in the economic area be it on climate protection be it in military in the military sector and on security and obviously there are a lot of challenges um ahead on the nuclear agreement with iran jcpoa we think that everything ought to be done in order to bring this to a successful conclusion but i think that is something that is also and the ball very much here is also in the iranian camp now over many many years we've served together in afghanistan um we've been able to contain um to a certain degree terrorist dangers but unfortunately we have not been able to build a nation as we would like it uh to look and still i would hold it was a good partnership has been a good partnership with the united states all throughout his experience also very good contacts between our soldiers and our soldiers greatly appreciated that we also talked about sail the sail zone where terrorism is on the rampage and obviously for us in europe this is a great challenge we're very and also for the countries on the ground we're very grateful to the united states for their mission in order to contain and push back against these terrorist advances we also have drawn up a german we've also agreed on a german-american a dialogue between our business communities because we have uh considerable trade links and we wish to build on this and obviously um the economy and economy ties of prime importance it was a very very good exchange we're close partners i would like this to remain even after i have left office and i think with this visit we probably paved the way to make it possible to also create formats where we can exchange because the world will continue to be a place that is full of challenges so thank you very much for making it possible for us to tackle those together thank you thank you very much we're each going to take two questions and i'm going to begin by recognizing steve portnoy and uh congratulate you on your new role as a president of the white house correspondents association my sympathies no but thank you i appreciate that sir on behalf of the press corps thank you and we're looking forward to today we can have even more reporters all the way to the back of the room so thank you very much i have a couple of questions for you also a question for the chancellor um but mr president uh with respect to latin america and the developments there in the last week plus yes um what are the circumstances under which you would send american troops to haiti that's the first question the second question is um when it comes to cuba what is your current thinking on american sanctions toward cuba and the embargo and today your press secretary said that uh communism is a failed ideology i assume that's your view i was wondering if you could also give us your view on socialism and then for the chancellor the question is madam the president said that you know the oval office as well as he does i'm wondering if you could reflect on your exchanges with american presidents over the last 16 years and particularly contrast the current president with his most immediate predecessor in two minutes or less [Music] uh obviously i know why they elected you president um well let me start off by uh answering the the question relative to uh haiti and cuba and communism is a fail system universally fail system and i don't see socialism as a very useful substitute but that's another story um with regard to uh whether the circumstance in which we would send military troops to um haiti we uh we're only sending american marines to our embassy to make sure that they are secure and nothing is out of whack at all but the idea of sending american forces into haiti is not on the agenda at this moment number one number two with regard to cuba uh cuba is a uh unfortunately a failed state and repressing uh their citizens there are a number of things that we would consider doing to help the people of cuba but it would require a different circumstance or a guarantee that they would not be taken advantage of by the government for example the ability to send remittances to back to cuba i would not do that now because the fact is it's highly likely that the regime would confiscate those remittances or big chunks of it with regard to the need covet on i mean assuming they have a covet problem on in cuba i would be prepared to give significant amounts of vaccine if in fact i was assured an international organization would administer those vaccines and do it in a way that average citizens would have access to those vaccines and one of the things that you did not ask but we're considering is they have cut off access to the internet um we're considering whether we have the technological ability to reinstate that access um and i think i've answered your questions thank you allow me if i made to elaborate on three different points um any german chancellor has a vested interest to talk and that's in very much in the vested interest of germany to work and talk together with any american president we've always had contacts and we you've been able to it was i think it's a very transparent and today it was a very friendly exchange um oh sorry i have to call uh mr kunis and his german question yeah thank you very much madam chancellor mr president um allow me if i may to ask um a question as regards nordstrom 2 madam chancellor you just said that you would act actively should russia be in breach of its commitments for example interrupt gas transit through ukraine what do you mean in concrete terms well germany then uh switch off uh north stream to from the german side and what sort of legal grounds would you be sort of claiming mr president uh you have fought so many years the u.s has fought so many years against uh nordstrom two now um um there will be only a few days left until this pipeline comes into operation um why will you allow it to go ahead to put it in operation or will uh the people who operate this system actually have to contend with sanctions on the horizon well mr kunos says the chancellor you know that we've worked a lot not only germany incidentally but the whole of the european commission for talking to russia and ukraine negotiating a treaty that um ensures uh until uh in 2023 the gas contract and after that gas deliveries must be possible as well and that is what i've heard at least let me be very careful here in my wording and then um should that no go go ahead we have a number of instruments uh at our disposal which are not necessarily um on the german side but on the european side um for example sanctions uh as regards um crimea or in breach of the minsk treaty has shown that we have those sanctions of these instruments at our disposal we have possibilities to react we are in contact with our european friends on this but um at the at the point in time of which i hope we will never have to take those decisions you will then see what we do my view on nordstrom 2 has been known for some time good friends can disagree and but by the time i became president it was 90 completed and imposing sanctions did not seem to make any sense it made more sense to work with the chancellor on finding out how she proceed based on whether or not russia tried to essentially blackmail ukraine in some way and so the chancellor and i have asked our teams to look at practical measures we could take together [Music] and whether or not europe energy security ukraine security actually strengthened a weakened based on russian actions and so this is a we'll see we'll see miss leonard of bloomberg thank you mr president um i have two questions for you and then some uh for chancellor merkel as well your administration tomorrow is issuing a business advisory um for hong kong i was wondering if you can explain why you think that is necessary and then secondly um on your buildback better agenda have you spoken to senators mansion and cinema about the 3.5 trillion dollar framework and are you confident that they'll be on board at that level and if they demand that you lose some components will you be able to keep progressives on board um [Music] i wanted to ask you whether you have a feeling that after the talk with president biden he better understands your viewpoint as regards china or whether the situation is still tense whether there's still decoupling and secondly whether you think that the united states has contributed enough to vaccinate the rest of the world or do you think it's only is it appropriate for children um in the united states being vaccinated children below the age of 12 while adults in other countries have no chance to get vaccinated that's all i thought i said we'd take two questions but i guess that translator would take two questions or more from each person called on let me talk about the business advisory the situation in hong kong has deteriorated and the chinese government is not keeping this commitment that made how it would deal with with hong kong and so it is more of an advisory as to what may happen in on hong kong it's as simple as that and as complicated as that with regard to am i confident i'm supremely confident that everything's going to work out perfectly in time look [Music] i understand why the press and among others is skeptical that i can actually get this deal done on infrastructure and on human infrastructure and i've watched and listened in the press declared my initiative dead at least 10 times so far i don't think it's dead i think is still alive i still have confidence we're going to be able to get what i proposed and what i've agreed to in the bipartisan agreement on infrastructure i've gotten we've each committed i trust the members of the republican senators who have made the commitments relative to how we should proceed and what would be included in the package for infrastructure and their men and women of honor and i expect they would keep their commitment with regard to the further issue of what's going on and what will confuse the listening audience but reconciliation that is the mechanism by which you have to get every single democrat to agree to proceed on matters like what i announced today today i don't know if you have any children it's none of my business whether you do but if you do you're going to get if you're making less than 150 000 you're going to get a significant stipend that is a tax cut if you have a child under the age of of uh seven years old you're going to get in your bank account today you're going to get a payment of one 12 months divided 3 600 3700 for that child divided by 12 every month just like a social security check it's expected to reduce child poverty by over 40 percent and it could be a significant significant game changer we have mechanisms to pay for both these mechanisms and uh there may be some last minute discussion as to who what mechanism is used to pay for each of these items both the infrastructure package and the human infrastructure package but i believe we will get it done thank we talked about china and there is um a lot of common understanding that china in many areas is our competitor that trade with china needs to rest and the assumption that we have a level playing field so that we all well play by the same rules uh have the same standards that incidentally was also uh the driving force be behind the eu-china agreement on trade that they uh abide by the core labor norms of ilo and we are convinced of ours needing to be technological leaders for our countries our two countries in both in many many areas obviously it's legitimate for china wishing to do this as well but for example we will cooperate in many technological state-of-the-art technologies for example chips i think the act that the president launched is fundamental um in this respect and crucial and we want to trade together at a time of digitalization where security issues uh loom very large on our agendas we ought to have an exchange on this we ought to talk about this we ought to talk about uh norms standards that govern the internet uh whether we can agree on common norms i think particularly as regards the relationship um of us with china we ought to coordinate our efforts we do that in the european union and we should do it uh with the united states and then there are interests obviously sometimes divergent interests but sometimes common interests but we also have obviously areas where american companies compete with european companies and we have to accept that but i think basically uh the rules as to how we deal with china or to rest and do rest on our shared values um and i think um on the pandemic we are obviously of the opinion that the pandemic we can only master the pandemic if each and every one is vaccinated we are trying to boost production we are trying also to get as many people in our country vaccinated as possible which obviously um opens us up to criticism of those countries who as yet have not had the chance which is why we invest a lot of money in coax which is why we encourage our companies to increase their production of vaccines and in africa we are trying to help africans to upskill people so that they too can have their own production sites we're going to do this but de facto there is an imbalance i agree uh but we're overcoming we're putting our all into that and also together in overcoming that imbalance um i'm sorry i call on ms schweible from the tiger speaker newspaper thank you one for each of you mr president my question my first question touches an issue that worries a lot of people in the us and in germany can you explain to us why there still is a travel ban for people coming from germany or other states of the european union while people from turkey where the number of new cases are seven times as high can come you have repeatedly said that you're following scientific data what is the main argument for not lifting that travel ban for the schengen region and chancellor merkel you talked to the business companies here you heard their concerns you heard their headaches some have threatened that they're going to shift business away from the united states what was your main argument to work for a lifting of the travel ban and have you had success with this we brought in the head of our arkova team because the chancellor brought that subject up it's in the process of reading how soon we can lift the band it's in process now and i'll be able to answer that question to you within the next several days what is likely to happen i'm waiting to hear from our folks in our our cova team as to when that should be done and cancer did raise it [Music] i did raise the issue yes um and got the same answer that the president gave you just now the cover team is uh evaluating the matter we had an exchange on in both areas the delta variant uh actually uh being on the increase that is again a new challenge to both of us and obviously before such a decision one has to reflect and it has to be a sustainable decision it is certainly not sensible to have to take it back after only a few days so i'm have every confidence in the american covert team having been here many times we don't leave right now we're going to miss dinner chancellor and i have a dinner with some a number of folks and uh very shortly so thank you for your attention and thank you for your for your questions thank you thank you [Music] you like that that's really not good

2021-07-19 02:58

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