EU capitals want retaliation against Donald Trump be delayed to prevent NATO summit shock

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The EU capitals ask Brussels to set any possible retaliation against Donald Trump’s rates until the NATO summit in June, arguing that an agreement with the President of the United States on medium -term security in Europe must be the priority.

Diplomats and officials told The Financial Times that governments were calling for important decisions related to the United States, including important investments in defense, until the result of the NATO meeting next month in Hague is clear.

Horn Officials are also asked to climb the military alliance summit as much as possible to minimize the potential of confrontation with Trump, in the midst of a deep uncertainty about what he could do at the event.

Trump has demanded that European allies are committed to spending 5 percent From GDP to defense and adopts a plan to “equalize” the responsibility of defending the continent, which has trusted in America for decades.

Next to intense conversations between key European leaders and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte Trump At the meeting from June 24 to 25, the capitals also urge the European Commission to avoid antagonizing the White House in the game.

Officials said that he included avoiding inflammatory public debates on commercial retaliation in response to Trump’s rates, delaying defense recruitment decisions, which led to a direct choice between European and North -American options, and avoiding criticism of the United States’ approach to Ukraine and his rhetoric on Greenland’s annexation.

Trump has imposed 25 percent of rates on European steel, aluminum and cars, as well as a 10 percent blanket rate in EU imports. He has stopped, until early July, a dubbing of that flat rate to 20 percent, waiting for the negotiations with the blog. Officials have said that if negotiations on a “balanced” agreement are melted, the The EU must retaliate with their own commercial measures.

“There is a lot of nervousness ahead of the Hague, and the general thought is to do everything we can to achieve (Trump) there, to say -what he wants to hear and remove him again without any disaster,” said a high EU official involved in discussions.

“We must present a credible plan for an orderly change (from the United States to Europe) in responsibility,” said NATO official. “This is the only key priority … above the rest.”

Although the EU and NATO are different, 23 countries are members of the Brussels organizations and Rutte has a close work relationship with the President of the Ursula Von der Leyen Commission.

American officials have told NATO allies that, while Trump plans to attend the summit, he could decide to cancel if there is no pre-arranged agreement among the other 31 NATO members to spend more and assume more responsibility to defend Europe.

NATO is developing a detailed study of its members’ current capacities to inform the complex discussions of the existing confidence of Europe in the United States, how to reduce this and speed and in which areas the United States can climb its presence without jeopardizing the continent’s safety.

European officials calculate privately, with the average defense expense approaching 4 percent and a plan agreed with the United States to incorporate in certain critical areas as the European military increases, a Chronology of five to 10 years It is feasible.

Initially, the Hague Summit was expected to be a high -profile matter for Rutte, as it will be his first secretary general and held in his hometown.

But it has already been reduced to two days, and is under some pressure from the allied capital to reduce the number of discussions among leaders to a minimum to reduce the risk of any Trump conflagration.

Many European leaders fear a possible repetition of the NATO summit of 2018, when Trump abducted the second day of conversations during his first term as president and threatened to withdraw from the alliance. This led to a chaotic search to quench it with greater defense expenditure promises, which involved Rutte as the Dutch Prime Minister.

“Money, money, money,” said a European diplomat involved in preparations. “You don’t want to talk about anything else and (additional topics) can wait.”

This could see the prominent political areas of the previous annual summits, including the Ukraine Candidate for Members, Relations with Asian Member Countries, and climate change problems, dramatically reduced of importance, according to officials.

“Europe should be prepared for the United States that was washed by Europe,” said Poland Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski on Wednesday. “It is a feasible task. There is a way to this … but we cannot pretend that we do not listen to what the North -Americans tell us.”