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The UK has rebuffed Brussels' offer of intensified trade talks next week, telling the European Union's chief negotiator there is "no basis for negotiations". The Prime Minister on Friday accused European leaders of having "abandoned the idea of a free trade deal" and told the country to "get ready" for a no-deal outcome in the negotiations after his October 15 deadline for reaching an agreement passed. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen had responded to his media statement by vowing that the EU would carry on negotiating, suggesting talks next week in London would go ahead as planned. But...

The construction of the Chinese laboratory at the centre of mounting suspicion over the source of the Covid-19 pandemic was signed off by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier – despite warnings by French intelligence services. Mr Barnier – currently embroiled in acrimonious negotiations with the UK over a post-Brexit trade deal – was the French foreign minister when he gave the go-ahead for work to start on the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2004, under a joint deal with the Chinese. The move came despite strong opposition from French diplomatic and security advisers, who argued that the Chinese...

Brussels last night made an extraordinary threat to disrupt flights to Europe and hold British goods at the border if the UK refuses to pay a £50 billion Brexit divorce bill. The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the UK would pay a heavy price if it tried to walk away from the EU without paying for its “responsibilities”. In a mocking speech, he quoted Winston Churchill, saying: “The price of greatness is responsibility.” Government lawyers have told Theresa May that the UK has no duty to pay a penny towards the EU’s ongoing costs after leaving. A report by...

Britain may not have two years to negotiate its divorce from the European Union after all. The EU’s chief negotiator on Brexit warned Tuesday that the country will have less than 18 months once talks begin and that it won’t be allowed to pick and choose what parts of the EU it wants to keep. While steering away from specifics on what a Brexit deal might look like, Michel Barnier, who took up his post months ago after Britain voted in June to leave the EU, said formal procedures at the start and the end of the talks will cut...

With just one-fifth the population of the United States, France boasts the world's second largest contingent of diplomats, and its consulates and embassies number just eight fewer than the State Department's 260.[1] The French investment in its foreign ministry is likewise heavy and demonstrates the importance the French government places on French prestige and grandeur. Under President Jacques Chirac, French foreign policy has become increasingly assertive. Francois Heisbourg, director of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (Foundation for Strategic Research), summed up French foreign policy as "oppose just to exist."[2]  Such descriptions are not entirely fair, though. While Chirac inherited a French foreign...

BUCHAREST, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier on Friday cautioned Romania against following the United States too closely, urging it to develop a "European reflex" sinceit wants to join the European Union (EU). "When one is in the European Union, the first reflex should be European. It is in the interest of Romania to have this reflex," Barnier told a joint news conference with his Romanian counterpartMihai Razvan Ungureanu. He reiterated his country's support for Romania's EU membership. It is good for Romania to maintain good relations with the United States, he said, noting that France is...

French Foreign Minister to visit Israel 6 Feb 2005French FM Michel Barnier will visit Israel to learn at first hand about developments in the peace process. (Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman) The Foreign Minister of France, Michel Barnier, will arrive in Israel for a visit on Sunday, February 6, as a guest of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Aside from meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Michel Barnier will meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Vice Premier Shimon Peres. The visit is intended to enable Foreign Minister Barnier to learn at...

PARIS - Sen. John Kerry [related, bio] will meet Friday with French President Jacques Chirac, U.S. and French officials said. The Massachusetts Democrat who lost the November election to incumbent President Bush [related, bio] has relatives in France and speaks French. Kerry's stop in Paris was part of a trip to Europe and the Middle East, the U.S. Embassy in Paris said Thursday. Kerry was also to meet with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier. The senator's office in Washington did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

...Last week in London, President Jacques Chirac admitted that getting rid of Saddam "may well have been good idea" — then added a big "but" about the wisdom of early elections in Iraq. His argument for delay was based on the claim that he wanted "broader participation" in the elections.... The camp of Saddam nostalgics, including Chirac and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have... portrayed the hostage-takers and head-choppers who terrorize parts of Iraq as "la resistance" and insisted that they should have a place in shaping the future of the country.... With Bush re-elected, chances of sabotaging Iraq's elections vanished....

...Simmering tensions broke into the open Saturday when nine French peacekeeping soldiers were killed in an Ivorian government air raid. The French were enforcing a nearly two-year-old ceasefire between northern Muslim rebels and the Christian-dominated government in Abidjan, on the southern coast. President Laurent Gbagbo's spokesman called the bombing a "mistake," but it looked, and worked, like a tailor-made provocation. Paris had no choice but to retaliate so it attacked and destroyed the state's tiny air force. French troops "occupied," if we may use that word, the two biggest airports. As if on cue, Mr. Gbagbo's lieutenants incited anti-French sentiment...

...A survey of Muslim views over the past weeks shows overwhelming, though not unanimous, condemnation of the Beslan massacre. But in all cases the reasons given for the condemnation are political rather than religious. Muslim commentators assert that Russia, having supported "the Palestinian cause," did not deserve such treatment.... Implicit in all this is that killing innocent people in the lands of the "infidel" is justified for as long as the victims are not citizens of states sympathetic to "the Arab cause," whatever it happens to be at any given time. That position was highlighted in the Arab reaction to...

New French Foreign Minister Eyes Revived U.S. Ties Thu Apr 1, 2004 09:37 AM ET By Kerstin Gehmlich PARIS (Reuters) - Michel Barnier's toughest task in his new role as French foreign minister is to patch up ties with Washington -- and his moderate manner is seen going down better than that of flamboyant predecessor Dominique de Villepin. Barnier, 53, formerly a European Union commissioner, took on his new job in a French cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday after the conservative government's rout in regional polls. One French newspaper dubbed him a "plodding European, with no style," but analysts said those...