For Europe, already reeling from Britain’s decision to leave its 28-member club, US president-elect’s Donald Trump’s election victory introduces a host of new uncertainties it is ill-equipped to tackle.
Preoccupied by a growing anti-establishment mood across the continent, the EU’s leaders gave little thought to the idea a man dubbed “the pioneer of a new authoritarian and chauvinist international movement” by Germany’s deputy chancellor could take power in the US.
The day before, one of the EU’s leaders had confided a contingency plan of “crossing ourselves and praying.” The day after, as they pledged to work with Trump, a senior EU diplomat summed up their dilemma.
Photo: AP
“Since we have refused to really think through this scenario, we have a list of questions that need to be answered, but almost everything is a big unknown,” the envoy said.
For some, Europe must now step up and take more responsibility, both for its own security and the wider world, if the entrepreneur makes good on campaign talk of limiting US defense commitments and other engagements abroad.
Trade relations, climate change, Russia and tackling the Islamic State group are all areas where Europe may have to forge its own path if a Trump-led Washington pulls back from the global stage.
“This is another wake-up call,” said Manfred Weber, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who leads conservatives in the European Parliament. “It is now up to Europe. We must be more self-confident and assume more responsibility.”
“We do not know what to expect from the USA,” he said.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said a Trump White House “may help some people in Europe understand that we need to reinforce defense cooperation among Europeans.
However, EU leaders know that euroskeptic radicals, inspired by Trump and Britain’s vote to leave the bloc in June, could exploit any attempt to tighten cooperation to condemn them to the same ignominious electoral fate as Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
East Europeans fret Russian President Vladimir Putin may use Trump’s vow to improve ties with sanctions-hit Moscow to extend Russian influence, as in Ukraine.
The Norwegian head of NATO felt obliged to spell out that Trump could not renege on security guarantees.
“Europe cannot blink after Brexit, after the election of Donald Trump,” French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Marc Ayrault said.
“Europe must stand together more, be more active and go more on the offensive,” Ayrault said. “Even just to protect itself.”
Privately, senior officials question its ability to do that.
“Europe will need to do more to take care of its own — but are we capable?” a senior European diplomat asked.
The EU has been riven with tensions over economic policy, the Syrian refugee crisis and Britain’s exit, and remains very divided.
Another senior EU diplomat said: “This changes the business model of the EU. But we have no idea how.”
He dismissed suggestions a US withdrawal from some engagements could offer benefits by obliging Europeans to invest more in their cooperation and spend more on their own defense: “That’s not a silver lining. That’s putting on a brave face.”
EU foreign ministers called a special meeting over dinner on Sunday to discuss what Trump’s US will mean for Europe.
Giles Merritt of pro-EU Brussels think tank Friends of Europe said leaders had no time to lose to “head off trouble” and could revive their own union by helping defend global stability.
They “must ... fashion a common European response ... before President Trump sets foot in the Oval Office,” he said.
It was a result few in Europe had wanted, barring authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. European leaders — and US President Barack Obama’s administration envoys — were reduced to highlighting the lowest common denominators of shared history and ideals in giving assurances of continued cooperation.
After a US campaign marked by accusations of racism and sexism, Merkel, preparing for her own election battle next year, said she would work with Trump on the basis of shared values that included “respecting ... people’s dignity regardless of their origin, the color of their skin, religion [or] gender.”
US Ambassador to the EU Anthony Gardner said he did not see Washington abandoning a key partner for the past 50 years, but his reassurance did not quell a sense of near panic among some senior officials in Brussels.
One said grimly: “This is bad. Brexit was a stupid and damaging mistake, but the people running it are not complete lunatics. Now we have a populist in power who can change the whole system as we know it.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in