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EU offers next US president partnership of equals

* Miliband says Europe would ensure its contribution for ME, Afghanistan and Pakistan in response to global financial crisis is ‘strong and clear’

MARSEILLE: European Union (EU) foreign ministers met on Monday to agree on a joint message to the next United States (US) president, calling for a partnership of equals on key challenges from the Middle East to the global financial crisis.

French Foreign Minister Kouchner, whose country holds the EU presidency, said his counterparts from the 27-member bloc would put the seal on a letter to the winner of the US election on how to strengthen trans-Atlantic ties.

“The European Union has become more resolute,” Kouchner said, referring in particular to the bloc’s role in negotiating a solution to the Russia-Georgia conflict in August and its leadership on the global financial crisis.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Europe believed it can work with Washington to shape “an inclusive global agenda that responds to the changing economic and social and political times”.

Europe would, he said, “make sure that our contribution in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in responding to the global financial crisis, is strong and clear and in close alliance both with this American administration but also with the new one”.

Congo: Miliband told reporters the EU had not ruled out sending a military humanitarian mission to back up the UN peacekeeping force in the DRC, which is struggling to halt a rebel advance and prevent a looming humanitarian disaster. “We’ll be talking about the work of the 17,000 UN peacekeepers there at the moment and the role of the European Union in supporting that politically, diplomatically, and no-one’s ruling out a military role,” Miliband said. afp

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