Trump views EU, not Russia, as problem for trade: Analyst
US President Donald Trump views the European Union “as a problem” amid a trade war with major allies in Europe, but he appreciates Russia as a potential trade partner, says an analyst.
James George Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst, made the remarks on Tuesday when asked about whether the close relationship between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin aims to disintegrate the bloc.
“I think he looks at the world from a nationalist perspective where other countries either can be cooperative with what he sees in our national interests or they can be opposed to them, I think he does look at the European Union as a problem for the United States on trades specifically which is the same way I think he looks at China,” he said.
“Russia simply does not present that kind of problem for us when it comes to trade and I think he appreciates that fact,” he told Press TV.
“I don’t think he necessarily has an agenda to break up the EU, but I think he realizes that the rising forces of nationalism, as we now saw with the formation of a new government in Italy, provide some leverage for him to get a better deal and a better arrangement for the United States.”
The US and Russian leaders, who met in Helsinki, the Finnish capital, on Monday, said they would build up on the meeting to have more dialogue in the future.
“This was a very constructive day, a very constructive few hours we spent together,” Trump said Monday at a joint press conference after the meeting. “I’m sure we’ll be meeting again in the future, often.”
President Putin also hailed the summit, saying the meeting marked the first steps to restore “an acceptable level of trust and go back to previous level of interaction on all mutual interest issues.”
Before the meeting, Trump blamed the hostile ties between the US and Russia on his own country’s past "foolishness and stupidity."
The US president repeated that assertion after he met with Putin, but included Russia in the criticism as well.
The summit capped a trip abroad during which Trump blasted NATO allies at a summit in Brussels for not paying their fair share to the military alliance and called the European Union a “foe” in trade.
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