German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday urged European countries to respond to US President Donald Trump’s protectionist economic policies and unilateralist diplomacy with “Europe United”.
“We must find an answer to the motto ‘America First’ on this side of the Atlantic and to me and to us, it’s clear that the response can only be ‘Europe United’,” Maas told reporters in Berlin, referring to Trump’s most famous catchphrase all along his campaign trail.
“We Europeans must cooperate even more closely which also means investing more into our own ability to act. That applies when it’s about fighting back punitive tariffs and it applies to security issues or the fight against climate change,” he went on to say.
Maas also pointed to the US midterm elections, in which Democrats managed to take the House of Representatives from Republicans, and said he expected Democrats to use their newfound power to influence Trump’s policies…