EU foreign ministers to gather to grapple with Trump impact

But European planners were at pains to stress the plan would not rival the work of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation which Britain, one of two nuclear-armed European members together with France, is setting as a priority since it voted to pull out of the European Union.

European foreign ministers have met in Brussels to determine the best course of action for a Trump presidency.

Ms. Mogherini said the EU wouldn’t shift its position on upholding the Iranian nuclear deal and the Paris climate-change agreement, calling these accords key European interests. “We do not seek to provoke a conflict, but to prevent a conflict”.

European foreign ministers said the bloc would stand by its key foreign policy positions on issues such as the Iranian nuclear deal, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and climate change, but vowed to work with the new USA administration.

European Union foreign ministers also adopted a resolution tightening export controls on “torture goods”, declaring, “The aim is to prevent European Union exports from contributing to human rights violations in third countries”.

He also insisted that a wall will be built between the United States and Mexico.

Mr Stoltenberg said: ‘ European leaders have always understood that going it alone is not an option.

Stoltenberg writes: “We have implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defence since the cold war”. The EU’s demands for a “multipolar world” and increasing EU commercial penetration of Iran and Iraq at USA expense, in the 1990s and early 2000s, were followed soon after by the unilateral, illegal United States invasion of Iraq in 2003. European officials were virtually unanimous in calling for a major European military escalation in response.

‘ The military links between our two countries are strong and they very very broadly based, and they will continue to be so.

The European Union on Monday agreed a defence plan that could see it sending rapid response forces overseas for the first time, as US President-elect Donald Trump’s criticism of allies appeared to galvanise Europe into revamping its strategy. “And more than 1,000 have paid the ultimate price in an operation that is a direct response to an attack against the U.S.”. Standing alongside Singapore’s prime minister in August, Obama said Trump was “woefully unprepared” because he lacked “basic knowledge” about critical issues in Europe, Asia and the Mideast.

“Europe should be taking care of its own problems and not worrying what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic”, he said. This is in direct contrast with what foreign ministers said during the meeting with president-elect Donald Trump.

“Rather than deepening our differences, we need to nurture what unites us, and find the wisdom and foresight to work together for common solutions”.

The dramatic development has sparked renewed calls from senior figures including European Union president Jean-Claude Juncker for closer cooperation within the bloc – potentially including a joint military headquarters.

“But before we make that determination.it’s very important, we are going to secure our border”. “That means we have to take to take more our own responsibilities”.

“I have said it repeatedly.it is not about an EU army, it is about a European Union security and defense that is more effective than it is today”, Mogherini said.