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The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said the US remains Europe’s biggest ally despite unprecedented criticism from the Trump administration of the European Union.
In an interview with Euronews at the Doha Forum in Qatar, she downplayed a controversial US National Security Strategy report which claimed that Europe is heading for “civilisational erasure” as a result of migration, censorship and supranational policies.
The document also argued that the US would work with “European patriotic parties” to restore the continent’s greatness. While the language is aligned with the policies supported by the Trump administration, the tone is unusually harsh and condescending to its traditional European allies.
Still, Kallas downplayed the controversy and argued that the two should “stick together” to fix global problems, starting with the war in Ukraine.
“Let’s focus on the things that we can do together. I mean, what we can take from that security strategy is that we are still allies with America. We don’t always see eye to eye on everything,” she said.
“Let’s focus on the global challenges that we actually have, which are, you know, economic coercive practices from China that we are both faced with, which is the threat that comes from malign actors like Russia, like China, like Iran,” Kallas added.
The National Security Strategy added to a week of tensions between the US and the European Union.
On Friday, the European Commission fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, €120 million for breaching transparency rules under EU legislation.
Musk responded by saying the EU should be dismantled and “return to individual countries” while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the fine an abomination.
The timing is complicated by ongoing negotiations led by the US to end the war in Ukraine. The Europeans are trying to muscle their way back to the negotiating table after being initially sidelined by Washington-Moscow direct talks.
On Monday, German Chancellor Merz, French President Macron, UK Prime Minister Starmer and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy will meet in London to hold further talks.
