Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 18 July 2018

EU, US relations sinking further after divisive Trump tour

By RAF CASERT cal of geopolitical security
BRUSSELS (AP) — After a issues, Trump would remain
week of the worst barrage true to American ideals.
of insults yet from U.S. Presi- Instead, he unleashed un-
dent Donald Trump, the precedented criticism at
European Union is looking last week's NATO summit.
westward toward the White Fully extracting itself from
House less and less. the United States, though,
Making it worse, after bark- is a daunting challenge for
ing at his European allies, Europe.
Trump spent Monday co- Militarily, with the excep-
zying up to EU adversary tions of France and Britain,
Vladimir Putin in an extraor- the European allies have
dinary chummy summit lived under the nuclear um-
with the Russian leader in brella of the United States
Helsinki. since World War II. De-
Never mind. In an age fense cooperation outside
when Trump has made po- of U.S-dominated NATO
litical optics all-important, is only now taking off and
on Tuesday, the EU struck the blocked Brexit negotia-
back. Key EU leaders were tions make such a prospect
in the far east in China and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, fraught with uncertainty.
Japan looking for the trust, European Council President Donald Tusk smile at press conference in Tokyo Tuesday, July 17, That military dimension,
friendship and cooperation 2018. and the bond between Eu-
they could no longer get Associated Press rope and the United States,
from a century-old ally. has a special resonance
Trump's embrace of Putin call for Europe," said Man- Soon, Trump had also piled the bloc said it put in place in nations like Poland and
and the EU 's Asian out- fred Weber, the German on economic punishment "the largest bilateral trade the Baltic states, which had
reach highlights the yawn- leader of the EPP center- with punitive tariffs on Euro- deal ever." long been under the thumb
ing rift, widening more by right group in the European pean steel and aluminum. Up to two years ago, that of Moscow before the col-
the day, in a trans-Atlantic Parliament, the legislature's Then came the NATO was supposed to be the lapse of the Soviet Union.
unity that has been the biggest. summit. Already viewed Trans-Atlantic Trade and Hence, Monday's Helsinki
bedrock of international "We Europeans must take with apprehension, reality Investment Partnership, or summit was seen with ap-
politics for the better part our fate in our own hands." turned out to be worse. TTIP, trade deal between prehension that Trump
of a century, as countless It was a startling sentiment First, Trump called Germa- the EU and the United might make dramatic con-
graves of U.S. soldiers bur- coming from someone who ny, the powerhouse of the States. But Trump quickly let cessions to Putin and leave
ied in European soil bear hails from the same Ger- European Union, "captive" it be known that such an parts of Europe with too
witness to. man Christian Democrat to Russia. Then he suggest- international agreement little protection. In Poland,
Trump's abrasiveness and stock as Angela Merkel, ed that Britain should "sue" would not happen on his the 1945 Yalta Conference
America First insistence Helmut Kohl and Konrad the EU over Brexit terms. watch. is seen as a symbol of politi-
had been a given even Adenauer, staunch sup- Finally, he finished off by "This is an act of enormous cal treason because, with-
before he became presi- porters of the trans-Atlantic calling the 28-nation bloc a strategic importance for out Poland's participation
dent. Europe's increasing link over the past three- trade "foe." the rules-based interna- and against Poland's will, it
resignation to let go of the quarters century. "For Trump, the categories tional order, at a time when put the country under Sovi-
cherished link to the White There have been other of friend, ally, partner, op- some are questioning this et control for decades, un-
House is much more recent. signs of the growing Euro- ponent, enemy don't ex- order," Tusk said at a joint til 1989. On Tuesday, there
After last week's brutal pean detachment from ist. For him there is only his news conference in Tokyo was some relief on that
NATO summit where Trump the White House, especially own ego," said the head of with Japanese Prime Minis- score. Krzysztof Szczerski,
derided Europeans as free- after Trump pulled out of the German parliament's ter Shinzo Abe. the foreign policy adviser
loaders, EU chief Donald the global climate agree- foreign affairs committee, "We are sending a clear to Polish President Andrzej
Tusk spoke on Tuesday of ment and the Iran nuclear Norbert Roettgen. message that we stand to- Duda, said that all those
"the increasing darkness of deal the EU brokered. So little wonder the EU gether against protection- who "prophesied that the
international politics." "With friends like that, who has turned for friends else- ism." Trump-Putin meeting will
"This Helsinki summit is needs enemies?" Tusk where — and found one Despite all, there remained lead to a second Yalta
above all another wake-up asked two months ago. Tuesday in Japan, where hope that on the most criti- were very wrong."q