U.S. President Donald Trump attends a working dinner meeting at the NATO headquarters during a NATO summit of heads of state and government in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. Matt Dunham/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Reuters: Transatlantic ties hang in the balance as Trump comes to Europe
BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - European leaders say they no longer have any illusions about Donald Trump as they welcome the U.S. president at a NATO summit this week, but they fear his “America first” agenda may force a moment of reckoning that works to no-one’s benefit.
After searching for stability and familiarity in U.S. foreign policy in Trump’s first year in office, America’s friends in Europe have come to accept the president as an unpredictable political insurgent. But that does not make it any easier to see their own priorities undermined.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned in a recent speech that “old pillars of reliability are crumbling”, in a veiled reference to the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to tariffs on EU metals exports and the threat of more to come on cars.
On NATO’s old foe Russia, the administration has sent mixed messages by intensifying a U.S. military build-up in Europe while railing against fellow NATO members on defense spending and failing to coordinate on new sanctions on Moscow in 2017.
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Update #1: Off to Europe: Trump to meet worried NATO heads, then Putin (Chicago Tribune/AP)
WNU Editor: Here is an easy prediction. Even though it is summer, it is not going to be a quiet news week with President Trump in Europe this week.
1 comment:
“It came as shock. We realized Trump cares little for the coordinated U.S.-EU foreign policy of the past,” said one senior diplomat present. “We are stuck without U.S. leadership.”
The shock is Trump isn’t interested in slaving US conduct to left wing EU policies. No to multiculturalism, globalism, all encompassing trade deals, mass immigration, global warming, the Soros projects and many more.. This “shock” is the US finally being bold again unafraid of going alone when our interests are unique.
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