Belgian Prime Minister urges Europeans to tighten policy towards the United States
European leaders should change their policy and not make concessions to US President Donald Trump amid his threats to impose additional duties on European goods. This was announced on January 20 by Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever.
"We have to respond to this. There's no point in being gentle anymore. If someone says: "I want to take away the territory of NATO from you, otherwise I will start a trade war," then we will start a trade war," the politician said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
De Wever noted that the imposition of duties on individual European countries will affect all EU members, and therefore it is necessary to present a united front against pressure from Washington.
"It is impossible to impose duties only against one country in Europe. In practice, this is simply impractical. It will be directed against everyone, and then, from my point of view, [we need to adhere to the motto] one against all and all against one," the Hungarian leader said.
On January 17, Trump announced that from February 1, Washington would impose duties of 10% with the possibility of increasing to 25% against a number of European countries that announced plans to send their military personnel to Greenland against the background of US territorial claims.
On January 14, Kurt Volker, the former special representative of the U.S. State Department for Ukraine, said that European governments still consider Washington a key security partner, but have serious doubts about its predictability and stability. The American diplomat acknowledged that a possible US attempt to seize Greenland by force would lead to the actual disintegration of NATO and undermine the foundations of the alliance.
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