US, EU leaders agree to address major challenges

EU national leaders and the US president demonstrated on Monday willingness to continue coordinating closely with each other on major political and security issues.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi came to the northern German city of Hanover on Monday afternoon to join German Chancellor Angela Merkel and visiting US President Barack Obama for an informal meeting on a range of pressing global issues.

Leaders of the five western countries, according to a statement issued by Merkel at the end of the two-hour summit, have agreed to continue coordinating closely with each on major political and security challenges.

"On the issue of illegal migration, we all agreed that we need, above all, to combat the causes of flight, and that the EU-Turkey agreement must be implemented by the NATO mission in the Aegean," Merkel told reporters, adding that the United States have expressed willingness for cooperation in the fight against illegal migration.

Syria was another top issue of Monday's talks. Noting with concerns that the ceasefire in Syria remains fragile, EU and US leaders stressed the need to continue political talks in Geneva with the aim of achieving a political solution to the Syria issue.

Speaking of the situation in Libya, Merkel said she and the leaders would provide support to help strengthen the current unity government led by Fayyez Sarraj, and talk with the government over how to combat illegal migration in the country.

As far as the fight against the Islamic State (IS) is concerned, the leaders agreed on a further close coordination in their countries' activities in both Iraq and Syria.

--IANS

ahm/