Trump shakes postwar order, in blow to Europe

Bryan McManus

AFP NewsJanuary 18, 2017

ricky l

28 seconds ago

EU should be less dependence and to rely on Trump to help EU and NATO.

Trump philosophy is America first and others are secondary.

Don't expect Trump to help EU and NATO.

EU and NATO will have to increasingly rely on itself.

Germany and France taking the lead in EU and NATO is a right step forward.

US will increasingly adopt isolationist policy and detached from the World.
As a result, US will relinquish its World leadership very soon.

• 

  ricky l

  4 seconds ago

  So EU should not portray or look towards Trump for World leadership - as a World Leader will attempt to look after its Allies and make its Allies strong --- not one that attempt to break up its Allies and make its Allies weak.
  
  Or worst, take advantage of its Allies to make himself strong but weaken its Allies.
  
  Trump will be a lonely figure very soon - as most of his Allies, Partners and Friends will keep a distance from him.

ricky l

4 seconds ago

Trump will be the champion in attempt to break up its Allies - EU like breaking up the USSR.

EU and NATO have to be very careful

It will trigger a Global Economic turmoil if EU break up.

EU's Tusk hails 'Churchill' May, slams Trump for backing Brexit

• Posted 18 Jan 2017 23:20

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves after delivering her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London, January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Leon Neal/Pool

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STRASBOURG: The EU leader who will oversee Britain's Brexit negotiations with the bloc hailed Theresa May on Wednesday for echoing Winston Churchill in backing European integration.

May's comments in laying out her plans for quitting the European Union were, European Council President Donald Tusk told EU lawmakers, a contrast to those of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has suggested more countries may follow Britain out.

"We took note of Prime Minister May's warm, balanced words on European integration which were much closer to the narrative of Winston Churchill than of the American President-elect Trump," the former Polish leader told the chamber.

May said on Tuesday that in leaving the EU Britain wanted the bloc to remain strong and prosperous. Fellow Conservative premier Churchill, Britain's World War Two leader, called in 1946 for Germany and France to forge a "United States of Europe", though one which then-imperial Britain would not join.

Trump, who takes office on Friday, has angered and alarmed EU leaders by supporting Brexit and suggesting other countries may follow suit - a sharp contrast with decades of U.S. support for European integration.

Tusk, who chairs summits of EU leaders, echoed others on the continent in welcoming May's speech in which she said Britain would leave the bloc's single market in order to be able to control immigration and stop funding the EU budget and obeying EU courts.

Suggestions by some British politicians since the June referendum on Brexit that London could stay in the single market while ending free movement of EU workers had been insistently opposed by other governments, which saw that as trying to keep the benefits of membership without paying the costs.

"The unified position of the 27 member states on the indivisibility of the single market was finally understood and accepted by London," Tusk said, while warning Britain not to try "pick-and-choose tactics" in its forthcoming negotiations.

(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

- Reuters

Biden calls Russia biggest threat to international order

• Posted 18 Jan 2017 18:35
 
• Updated 18 Jan 2017 19:45

Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States speaks at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

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DAVOS, Switzerland: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in his last major speech before leaving office, described Russia on Wednesday as the biggest threat to the international liberal order and said Washington must work with Europe to stand up to Vladimir Putin.

Biden was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos two days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president.

Trump has sent conciliatory signals to Putin and seemed to encourage the disintegration of the European Union by praising Britain's decision to leave the bloc and predicting that more countries could bolt.

Biden pushed back forcefully against Trump's message, warning hundreds of leaders, CEOs and bankers gathered in a vast conference hall in the Swiss Alps resort town that Putin was likely to try to influence a series of elections in Europe this year, as it is accused of doing in the recent U.S. vote.

"Under President Putin, Russia is working with every tool available to them to whittle away at the edges of the European project, test the fault lines of western nations and return to a politics defined by spheres of influence," Biden said.

"With many countries in Europe slated to hold elections this year, we should expect further attempts by Russia to meddle in the democratic process. It will occur again, I promise you. And again the purpose is clear: to collapse the liberal international order," Biden added.

He did not address Trump directly, but warned of a "dangerous willingness to revert to political small-mindedness" in politics and said that "dangerous autocrats and demagogues" had tried to capitalise on people's fears throughout history.

Biden called Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which states that an attack on one member of the transatlantic military alliance is considered an attack on all, a "sacred obligation".

Trump has called NATO "obsolete" and raised doubts about whether he would respect Article 5, stirring deep unease in Europe.

"Defending the liberal international order requires that we resist the forces of European disintegration and maintain our longstanding insistence on a Europe, whole, free and peaceful," said Biden.

"It means fighting for the European Union, one of the most vibrant and consequential institutions on earth," he added.

(Additional reporting by Richard Baum; Editing by Mark Potter)

- Reuters

Hands off EU, Trump; we don't back Ohio secession: Juncker

• Posted 19 Jan 2017 00:20

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker attends a debate on the priorities of the incoming Malta Presidency of the EU for the next six months at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

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BRUSSELS: Donald Trump should lay off talking about the break-up of the European Union, the bloc's chief executive said on Wednesday, pointing out that Europeans do not push for Ohio to secede from the United States.

In pointed remarks on the eve of Trump's inauguration as U.S. president, Jean-Claude Juncker said the new administration would realise it should not damage transatlantic relations but added it remained unclear what policies Trump would now pursue.

Juncker told Germany's BR television, according to a transcript from the Munich station, that he was sure no EU state wanted to follow Britain's example and leave the bloc, despite Trump's forecast this week that others would quit:

"Mr. Trump should also not be indirectly encouraging them to do that," Juncker said. "We don't go around calling on Ohio to pull out of the United States."

Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said he had yet to speak to Trump - contrary to what the President-elect said earlier this week. Juncker said Trump had confused him with European Council President Donald Tusk.

"Trump spoke to Mr. Tusk and mixed us up," said Juncker, taking a jab at the American billionaire's grasp of his new role. "That's the thing about international politics," he said. "It's all in the detail."

(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Gareth Jones)

- Reuters