but. this is news live from berlin e.u. russia ties understrength on a visit to moscow the european union's top diplomat calls the jailing of kremlin critic alexei navalny a low point involving is now on trial again this time for defamation. meanwhile they protested in moscow and now they are paying the price will speak to friends and relatives of those arrested in protests supporting opposition leader a lesson on it also coming up and merkel is back america

is back diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy. president joe biden announces a reversal of trunks on their 1st agenda. and fleeing the war only to find even more suffering bitter cold and the pandemic make like even harder for syria's refugees sheltering in the province would meet a family whose efforts to keep warm ended in tragedy. i'm susan was going to it's good to have you with us in moscow the european union's top diplomat has said that the e.u.'s ties with russia are under severe strain after the imprisonment of kremlin critic alexis of all me made the comments during a meeting with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov it is the 1st visit by a senior diplomat since 2017

a site of all the the meetings agenda also included the iran nuclear deal the situation in ukraine and other human rights issues in russia. and here's what the russian foreign minister had to say after the meeting and we will so you these notice that every mr gates we proceed from the assumption that the e.u. at this stage is an unreliable pot. and i hope that the strategic review that takes place soon will focus on the key interests of the e.u. and that these talks help make out contacts more constructive we've seen the border we are ready for it. let's go right to moscow our correspondent and we sure win is standing by for us there hi emily we heard some strong words from the russian foreign minister there is there a place now for constructive dialogue. well this is a clearly a very tense moment in russian relations ahead of this meeting today the kremlin

spokesperson to meet the of this course called relations of frozen and it's clear that you know there were already a lot of bones of contention essentially between the e.u. and russia including the annexation of the crimean peninsula in 2014 by russia but now the main bone of contention is me his arrest his poisoning and the protests that have erupted around his arrest and also those detentions that we've been seeing at those protests and there was a bit of a clash today between the 2 diplomats between and between love wroth with on the one hand burrell not in so many words but essentially saying that there is no rule of law in russia at least he implied that and love rauf on the other hand accused the west of basically being hypocritical in its accusations of police violence and also repeated. that he didn't that russia doesn't want the e.u.

to meddle and to top it all off after that meeting today we've now heard media reports that 3 diplomats from european countries are apparently being expelled from russia that hasn't been officially confirmed as far as i have seen but we've been hearing it might be germany poland and sweden given all of these very serious tensions what outcome do you think we can expect from a meeting. well both. despite all of those tensions that we saw in that despite all the tensions that we've been seeing in the past few weeks as well with various e.u. politicians coming out and accusing russia of kind of police force of you know putting. me in jail for arbitrary for an arbitrary case despite all of that both were own love of highlighted their openness for dialogue and common ground as

well i think one outcome on the international stage could be a continuation of talks to protect potentially restore the iran nuclear deal with a new u.s. administration but i think the most noticeable thing today was that both. mentioned scientific cooperation and support to specifically the russian vaccines bootmaker v so it almost seemed a bit like perhaps for russia now is to take the has become almost a trump card and that the e.u. is willing to potentially overlook human rights abuses to get their hands on a vaccine and coming back to know what exactly was there well today there was another trial going on against alex in me this time on accusations of slander or he's being accused of insulting a world war 2 veteran. himself today in court said that these are trumped up

charges and that essentially the veteran is being used for political purposes in order to paint him kind of as unpatriotic of course it's also provocative noticeable you know that they have this 2nd trial here in russia this week of i like seeing a line me despite all the accusations that. he has been in the past and at the moment wrongfully accused of you correspondent reporting for us from moscow good to talk to you. meanwhile thousands of people have been arrested across russia this week in protests against volleys imprisonment around 500 of them are being held at a detention facility near moscow outside their friends and relatives wait for news our correspondent yury was shadow spoke with. who's number 15 in the line is this woman asks she's one of the volunteers outside of the soccer of

a detention facility at 2 hour drive from moscow these people have been standing in the freezing cold since of the early morning. they want to help as their friends and relatives people who were arrested during the protests. some of them are waiting for their sentence some are already serving it to be shared with you that we have collected warm things this is a sweater this is a blanket because we don't know if our friends in there have anything to cover up with little see that there is sucks underwear t. shirts and. just in case all of this is awful even cried a few times my friends are in there. looking back at me more than 7000 people have been arrested across russia in the past 10 days. the police were particularly brutal during the last protests in moscow and st petersburg on the

weekend and after alex enough on his sentence some time security forces dragged people into police buses for no reason some of them were random passers by several cases are now being investigated the police. authorities argue that the protests were not authorized and therefore posed a security threat in reality the police officers themselves have at times become a security threat to some you know sent by. these young people say they spent up to get well for our loss as a courthouse after being detained apparently they had to sleep on the floor they were sentenced to several days in prison but since prison space seems to be running out they have had to wait for hours in the police bus. it's stuffy one young man explains he says he spends 7 hours in here so far. it's now after

noon in front of the sucker of our detention center the queue has a barely moved. the authorities are taking their time accepting the packages and are searching each one carefully at the finish because this is all so surreal we don't know what all this will lead to but we. want to continue fighting for our rights and our freedom he was fortunate to get you but yes of course we're also scared but many people want to keep fighting for their future on the streets you want to push the pedal to the bush. more than 500 people are said to be in detention behind to these fans and more young people are expected to arrive here from moscow courts especially if the protests continue. let's check in now and some other headlines from around the world in indonesia activists protested the mian mar military coup outside the country's embassy in jakarta they called for the release of aung san suu kyi and other civilian leaders

detained by the military the indonesian government is seeking a special meeting of the bloc of southeast asian nations to discuss the situation in the in march. china has criticised the u.k. for revoking the license of chinese state broadcaster c g t n a foreign ministry spokesman called the decision political and based on ideological prejudice the british regulator revoked license on thursday saying its government backed ownership structure broke u.k. law. in the us a controversial republican lawmaker has been sanctioned for promoting chewing on conspiracy theories and endorsing violence against democrat politicians marjorie taylor green was removed from 2 committees after a vote in the u.s. house of representatives 11 republicans were among those voting against her green said she regretted summer passwords but she did not apologize and in the u.s. state of iowa a number of people were injured in a pileup of some 40 vehicles police said 2 officers were helping with multi-car

crashes in the area when the larger pileup happened officials said there were no fatalities. now u.s. president joe biden has outlined his vision for u.s. foreign policy in his 1st major policy speech biden said he wants to reassert u.s. global leadership we build alliances and reverse donald trump's america 1st agenda he added that he aims to end u.s. support for the war in yemen and halt the withdrawal of u.s. troops from germany the united states is ready to engage with the world again that was joe biden's message from the modeled holes of washington state department for biden that means foreign policy must be grounded in a multilateral world rather than a defense of america's interests that puts america 1st. is back diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy so the u.s.

will once more try to find solutions to the world's problems like in yemen dubbed the world's worst humanitarian crisis years of conflict has destroyed much of the country killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving more near starvation the u.s. has given tacit backing to one side of that war no more says by. this war has to end. and to underscore our commitment we are in need all american support for offensive operations in the war in yemen including relevant arms sales the moved represents a broader shift in u.s. foreign policy that previous administrations have been accused of siding with authoritarian nations in the name of stability but the president wants that to end and he knows he's going to need help for biden taking a stronger stance internationally will mean having to reach out to washington's old allies in europe and elsewhere he ordered a freeze on u.s.

troop withdrawals abroad including from u.s. bases in germany the trumpet ministration want to pull out nearly 10000 of some 35000 troops based in the country biden will depart from that plan. america the alliances are our greatest asset and lady with diplomacy means standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies and key partners once again. the biden administration comes to power with diplomats morale lower and its alliances chafing restoring both will be a huge challenge let's get some perspective on this story now we can speak to christine but it's a not a senior fellow with the german marshall fund in brussels she is an expert on u.s. foreign policy and transatlantic relations christine thanks for joining us let's start with what stood out to you about joe biden's speech there how did it differ from a president. president biden started his speech by saying that america is back

and really the speech was a reversion to an america before the age of donald trump and it was it was a very values based speech 1st of all coming to the state department coming and reaching a hand directly to the u.s. diplomatic corps the diplomatic corps was very much and battle of against president's trying previously so it goes back to a much more harmonious relationship the ballot the speech itself really present to the world in a struggle of the us the struggle against awkward tarried isms and much of the speech was dedicated to countering the challenges posed by russia and by china and alex to allies and really commending allies abroad but also as compared to american speeches of the past there was an element of humility there an element of needing to look at home president biden and besides the need for us to lead not only in our

new actions that it will take or reihan saying it's partnerships but also by strengthening democracy at home by being a better and democratic country he said reaching out to allies will we know that the trump administration did cause a lot of concern among allies here in europe so do you think the speech is going to restore trust in the u.s. this speech is a 1st step with a new relationship between europe and the united states it's absolutely important for the biden assertion to set the groundwork to say look we are going to be cooperating with europe where rejoining the paris climate change agreement we are we entering the world health organization together we're going to solve some trade challenges it's an extension of the hand but europe in many ways has been offended by the u.s. over the past for you.