Biden-Rutte Bilateral Meeting Underway, Semiconductors On The Agenda

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has arrived at the White House for his first formal bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden.

• The meeting is the second key engagement of the last week for the Biden administration's drive to restrict semiconductor access to China, after a bilateral between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
• Biden said ahead of the meeting: “Together we are stepping up our protection or democratic values across the world," but declined to take questions from the press pack.
• Biden, as with Kishida, is expected to push Rutte to restrict export licensing for Dutch firm ASML, a key producer of tech used in the manufacture of semiconductors crucial to Chinese military development.
• Rutte said his administration does not feel pressure to enforce a policy which may hobble his country's high tech sector, a sentiment echoed by Dutch Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher: "We've been talking with the Americans for a long time, but they came up with new rules in October... You can't say that they've been pressuring us for two years and now we have to sign on the dotted line. And we won't."