Trump runs into headwinds in trip

 Brussels, Thursday 

US President Donald Trump ran into the first problems of a landmark European trip, embarrassingly called out in public over Russia and on leaks into the Manchester terror attack.

His carefully choreographed visits to the EU and Nato in Brussels were designed to heal divisions caused by the billionaire’s harsh campaign criticisms of both institutions.

Trump was to take a “tough” stance with Nato—the US-led military alliance he once dubbed “obsolete”—to push it to take more action on Islamist terrorism and to pay its way. But differences immediately emerged after his talks with the European Union’s top officials Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker on climate change, trade, and above all Russia.

“I’m not 100 per cent sure that we can say today—‘we’ means President and myself—that we have a common position, common opinion about Russia,” former Polish prime minister Tusk said.

Trump on the campaign trail made restoring relations with Russia a key promise but he has faced bitter opposition in Washington and has since become embroiled in a scandal over alleged links to Moscow.

He had also previously alarmed the EU by backing Britain’s Brexit vote last year and by calling the bloc a vehicle for German domination of the continent.

After the meeting of what has been dubbed the “Two Donalds”, EU leader Tusk said the EU and US “agreed on many areas, first and foremost on counter-terrorism.”

But in a combative line, Tusk also called for “Western values” to be promoted, challenging former tycoon Trump’s world view that self-interested deals best settle international problems.

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May said meanwhile she would raise directly with Trump the issue of leaks from a probe into the Manchester terror attack that have left British authorities infuriated with their US counterparts.

Speaking ahead of her departure for the Nato summit in Brussels, May said she would “make clear to President Trump that intelligence which is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure.”

Trump has made enlisting Nato in the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State a key objective of the summit, saying the Manchester killings showed how dangerous the threat was and that there was no option but to defeat the jihadists completely.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said early Thursday the alliance would formally endorse joining the coalition at the summit, despite reservations in France and Germany about getting involved in another conflict.

“This will send a strong political message of Nato’s commitment to the fight against terrorism,” Stoltenberg said, stressing that it would not involve the alliance in a combat role.

Stoltenberg said the allies would also meet Tusk’s demands to share more of the security burden and reaffirm a commitment to spend 2.0 percent of annual GDP on defence. -AFP

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