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BEIJING Top diplomats from China and the European Union pledged closer cooperation Wednesday, highlighting their common interests in peace and security and pushing a message of free trade and open engagement in contrast to fears that the U.S. is turning inward under President Donald Trump.

The statements came as China and the EU held their first high-level talks since Trump took office in January. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini co-chaired the Seventh EU-China Strategic Dialogue with State Councilor Yang Jiechi, Chinas highest-ranking diplomat.

At present, the international situation is complex with many new developments, challenges and problems, Yang told Mogherini at the outset.

Against this backdrop, for China and the EU to deepen cooperation and coordinate positions not only concerns the common interests of the two sides, but also is of great significance for the development of international political and economic relations, he added.

Mogherini said China and the EU had a big responsibility during times of uncertainty.

We are looking forward to intensifying our cooperation on a positive agenda, what the EU and China can do together for the benefit not only of our citizens, but also of the world, Mogherini said.

The two sides discussed rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea moves to accelerate its nuclear weapons development, and the war in Syria. Mogherini told reporters afterward that ending the war in Syria is a priority, and she and Yang discussed at length how to actively support the U.N.-led process while working to improve the humanitarian access into the country.

The one-day talks come ahead of an EU-China summit scheduled for Brussels in June.

On Tuesday, Mogherini met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who said that the international community was looking at how China and the EU would work together to tackle challenges including the world economic recovery, global conflicts and terrorism, and Britains pending withdrawal from the EU.

Li said he was optimistic about the outcome of the talks based on a stable China-EU relationship, with the consistency of our two sides toward multilateralism and free trade, and with our joint commitment to improving the international governance structure.

Unlike Trump, who was elected promising to tear up trade deals, impose new tariffs and bring jobs back to America, Chinese President Xi Jinping has cast his country as a champion of free trade and stability, and spoken out against protectionism.

Mogherini said that such speeches by Xi have raised high expectations that China and the European Union can work together on multilateralism, on rules-based global order and trade.

Not only our people, but probably the multilateral system, need Europe and China to work together on some of the major global issues we are facing, from climate change to migration or counterterrorism, and also the many crises we have around us such as the tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Mogherini told Li at the start of their meeting.

Beijing and Brussels have disagreements on trade, however, including complaints by European and other foreign companies that they are blocked from acquiring Chinese assets while Chinas companies are buying major global brands.

They also say they are barred from or sharply restricted in telecoms, information technology, finance and other promising industries in violation of Beijings free-trading pledges.

Beijing, meanwhile, wants the EU to grant it market economy status, which would make it harder for the EU to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese imports that it deems to be unfairly cheap.

Other points of dispute include Chinas increasingly restrictive environment for civil society and internet censorship.

Mogherinis first meeting Wednesday, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, was canceled. A foreign ministry official said the EU delegation had informed them that Mogherini was feeling unwell.

She will give a speech at Beijings prestigious Tsinghua University on Thursday, and then travel to India and Russia.

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China, European Union push message of free trade, engagement - The Denver Post

In an unexpected statement at Downing Street, May said she was seeking a vote on June 8, less than halfway through the government's five-year term.

Opposition parties said they would not block the move, sending Westminster into full-throttle election mode.

The European Union brushed off May's announcement, saying it would not affect the negotiations on Britain's departure. But May's decision means that Europe's three most powerful nations -- France, Germany and Britain -- will be convulsed by internal election campaigns as the clock ticks on the two-year deadline to complete Brexit negotiations.

May, who commands only a slim majority in parliament's lower House of Commons, said that a new mandate would strengthen her hand in Brexit talks.

A general election would end the attempts of opposition parties and members of the House of Lords to thwart her Brexit plans, she said. "If we do not hold a general election now, their political game playing will continue," she told reporters at Downing Street.

"At this moment of enormous national significance, there should be unity here in Westminster, but instead there is division. The country is coming together, but Westminster is not," she added. "We need a general election and we need one now."

Her decision is a sharp reversal of policy -- since taking over as Prime Minister, May had repeatedly ruled out an early election. May said she changed her mind on a recent walking holiday with her husband in Wales.

It is also a risky roll of the political dice. A fractious election campaign will reopen wounds barely healed after last year's EU referendum and give voice to those who oppose her strategy of pursuing a clean break from Europe.

May's Conservative Party currently holds 330 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. She is expected to win an increased number -- opinion polls show support for the opposition Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, at record low levels.

Corbyn said he would not oppose the call for an election. "I welcome the Prime Minister's decision to give the British people the chance to vote for a government that will put the interests of the majority first," he said.

Under legislation introduced by the coalition government led her predecessor, David Cameron, an early election requires the support of two-thirds of MPs in the House of Commons. May said she would place a motion on Wednesday in the House of Commons calling for a vote on June 8.

A Downing Street spokesman said that May had the full backing of her Cabinet on calling the election and that the Prime Minister had spoken with Queen Elizabeth II on Monday.

May called on voters to throw their support behind her Conservative Party, adding that "every vote for the Conservatives will make me stronger" in Brexit talks.

Corbyn said he welcomed the decision to call for an election, even though his party is fractured over his leadership, widely regarded as lackluster.

Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats -- which was battered in the 2015 election and now holds just nine seats in the House of Commons -- said the election was Britain's chance to change direction.

The Liberal Democrats oppose Brexit, and Farron said he would push for as strong an association with Europe as possible -- a so-called "soft" Brexit -- including membership of the EU's free-trade zone, the single market.

The party said it had gained 1,000 new members in the hour after May's announcement. Labour also said it had gained 1,000 members Tuesday.

In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is likely to use the campaign to pursue her demand for a fresh independence referendum, after Scotland overwhelmingly voted to stay in the European Union.

"This announcement is one of the most extraordinary U-turns in recent political history, and it shows that Theresa May is once again putting the interests of her party ahead of those of the country," Sturgeon said.

Britain voted in July last year to leave the union after 44 years of membership in a divisive and hotly contested referendum.

The negotiations are expected to be tough and will likely take place over two years, though the more complex aspects of Britain's future relationship with the EU, such as trade, could take even longer.

May has struggled with not only the opposition, but with members within her own Conservative Party, who have been at loggerheads over what kind of Brexit the country should have.

The Prime Minister laid out her vision for Brexit in January and more formally later with a White Paper. But even that basic framework -- which spelled out that Britain would leave the EU's single market -- caused divisions in her party and involved several rounds of deliberations before a coherent plan could be presented.

The European Union appeared unwavered by the announcement. Preben Aaman, a spokesman for the European Council president Donald Tusk, said the EU would continue with its plans to adopt guidelines on April 29 for the Brexit talks.

CNN's Erin Mclaughlin, Hilary McGann and Carol Jordan contributed to this report.

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UK Prime Minister Theresa May to seek early election - CNN

04/18/2017

European issues and conflicts affect all parts of the world.

SUNY Cortlands Model European Union participants recognize this and hope to gain knowledge and experience from SUNY Model European Union (SUNYMEU) to use in an international studies-related career.

Hoping to polish her public speaking and negotiation skills, Maya Zaynetdinova is one of 12 SUNY Cortland students who attended the SUNY Model European Union conference held March 30 to April 2 in New York City.

The conference alternates annually between New York City and Brussels, Belgium.

I look forward to meeting students from other schools and participating in the negotiations, said Zaynetdinova, an international studies and economics dual major. I am curious to see the strategies of other countries.

Zaynetdinova, an exchange student at SUNY Cortland from Moscow, Russia, joined Model European Union this semester.

The conference gives students the opportunity to represent one of the 28 member-states of the European Union; an institution of the EU, such as president of the EU Commission; president of the Council of Ministers; or representatives of a political party in the European Parliament, such as the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

At the recent conference, the students participatedin a test trial of a role-play simulation. Above left, the SUNY Cortland delegation and professors gathered at the SUNY Global Center in New York City.

Cortland represented Greece, Denmark and Romania this year.

Similar to the Model United Nations, students participated in role-play simulations addressing major issues in international studies, according to Model EU project coordinator Alexandru Balas, director of the Clark Center for Global Engagement and assistant professor of international studies at SUNY Cortland. However, SUNYMEU occurs in a much smaller setting consisting of around 30 students. Compared to the Model UN setting of 193 represented states, the smaller size of the Model EU allows for students to focus more on the substantive issues and on the negotiation skills.

Model EU is a great opportunity to become a better negotiator, which is crucial not only for any international work, but really for all professions, said Zachary Curtis, a sophomore international studies major from Cortland, N.Y. It will also help me immensely to be exposed to methods of governance we just don't have in the United States.

In November 2016, Balas received a Model European Union Simulations grant of 31,000 euros, equivalent to approximately $33,000, from the EU Delegation to the U.S. Also named as grant recipients were SUNY Cortland, Andreas Kotelis, 2017 Clark Center for Global Engagement scholar in residence, and Noam Ebner, professor of negotiation and mediation at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

The new funding supports the development, by the end of 2017, of three role-play simulations of the European Union Delegation to Washington, D.C.

At the recent gathering, the students had developed a simulation over the mandate given to the European Commission for negotiating a real or fictional free trade agreement with a major global economic power. They also planned to develop a simulation over policies regarding refugees and security. Another simulation involved a role-play negotiation on anti-terrorism cooperation.

This should get good exposure for SUNY Cortland as the expectation is that these three simulations will be used hundreds of times in international studies and political science courses throughout the country, said Balas, who represented SUNY Cortland at the annual coordination meeting of the European Union Jean Monnet Network in the U.S., from Dec. 7 to 9, in Washington, D.C.

The grant continues the Model European Union tradition at the College started by Henry Steck, a SUNY distinguished service professor and professor emeritus of political science at SUNY Cortland. This is the sixth award for the Colleges Model European Union-related funding for simulations that are currently underway, two of them through 2021.

In 2015, Balas received the European Union Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Module grant of 30,000 euros, or nearly $32,000, to establish SUNY Cortland as one of two SUNY schools that are members of the European Union Jean Monnet Network.

Given the current state of the European Union and the current challenges from Brexit to the rise of extreme right-wing parties and politicians, from the immigration crisis to the financial-economic crises, knowledge of the European Union is a must for global citizens nowadays, Balas said. Thus, this second grant will hopefully anchor European Union Studies at SUNY Cortland and promote an understanding of the continent which hosts most of our study abroad students.

For more information, contact Balas at 607-753-2250.

Prepared by Communications Office intern Jamie Winsper

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Students Model European Union in Big Apple - SUNY Cortland - SUNY Cortland News

The Guardian

Turkey Vote Could Mean the End of a Courtship to Join the EU New York Times For decades, the European Union dangled the possibility of membership before an eager suitor in Turkey. But it was never a perfect match. Too many Europeans had reservations about having a predominantly Muslim state, with porous and volatile borders ... EU leaders urge Erdoan to show restraint after referendum victoryThe Guardian Turkey referendum: EU urges Ankara to probe illegal vote claimsBBC News Erdogan's referendum on absolute power means the European dream is over for TurkeyThe Independent Fox News -RTE.ie -Voice of America all 3,376 news articles »

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Turkey Vote Could Mean the End of a Courtship to Join the EU - New York Times

Picture: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

The UK's BrexitDepartmenthas come under fire for Tweeting graphs on trade and economic growth that seem to indicate the benefits of staying in the European Union.

The Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) has been mercilessly ridiculed online after posting graphs on the growing trade since the Second World War, presumably in an attempt to assure people Brexit will go well for the UK.

However, more than anything it seems to perfectly underlinethe importance and benefits of the UK's membership in the European Union from 1973 onwards.

People are taking the opportunity to mock the DExEU,as thegraphs seem to explicitlyhighlight just how dependent Britain is and was on trade links and deals with the other European Union states.

The trade graph, tweeted out by the official DExEUaccount, can be seen here.

Almost instantly, an eagle-eyed tweeter pointed out that the illustration seemed to omit a key detail -that detail being the reason for the growth in trade in the 1970's.

The UK actually joined the EECin 1973 where the total trade is on the rise and, if pointing it out wasn't enough,they then offered the following graph to highlight this.

More: These are the best jokes about Brexit

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Department for Brexit mocked after accidentally praising the EU - The indy100