Compared to warm receptions she enjoyed during the Obama years, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini may be facing a much different welcome on her first visit to Washington since Donald Trump became president.
Ms. Mogherini began a two-day trip Thursday saying she hoped to find “common ground” in a slate of meetings with top administration and congressional officials, including National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
On her Twitter account, the EU’s top diplomat said she had had a “good meeting” with Mr. Tillerson, discussing U.S.-EU cooperation and the crises in Syria and Ukraine, among other issues.
But it may be a different story with other top administration officials, as President Trump signaled a major break in policy by cheering on Britain’s exit from the EU and as his top aides have openly questioned the need for the European bloc.
Acrimony between the European establishment and Mr. Trump mounted for months around his accusations that NATO is “obsolete,” his openness to working with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his criticism of the Iranian nuclear deal, his skepticism about an U.S.-EU free trade deal and his outspoken admiration for anti-EU nationalist politicians such as Britain’s Nigel Farage.
EU officials have even raised objections to Mr. Trump’s rumored choice to be ambassador to the 28-nation bloc, claiming businessman and former U.N. diplomat Ted Malloch has a history of anti-EU writings.
Mr. Malloch only deepened concerns across the Atlantic in an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, saying he believed the EU is strongly anti-American and that the new Trump administration prefers to work with European countries on a one-on-one basis.
The EU “has taken positions contrary to American foreign policy in the last eight years in any number of issues, whether it’s on Israel, on the Middle East, on Iran [or] on some human rights issues,” Mr. Malloch told the AP. “There is a long and growing list of issues where U.S. foreign policy differs from that of the EU.”
The situation grew particularly biting last month, when Mr. Trump charged that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door immigration policies were an invitation to terrorists and a “catastrophe” — an assertion that was followed by the president’s executive order to block refugees from the U.S. and temporarily ban visas for seven Muslim-majority nations.
EU President Donald Tusk of Poland responded by penning a letter to the EU’s 28 member nations, describing the U.S. under Mr. Trump as an “external threat” to Europe’s stability on par with Russia, China, radical Islam and terrorism. Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, went even further at the time, suggesting in a speech at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, that Mr. Trump has personally sought to undermine the unity of Western European nations.
In addition to the threat posed by radical Islamic terror and an increasingly aggressive Mr. Putin, there is now “a third front undermining the European Union, and it is Donald Trump, who has joined [the far-right parties] from across the Atlantic,” Mr. Verhofstadt said, according to Britain’s Telegraph newspaper. “He has talked fairly favorably of other countries wanting to break away from the EU, and that he hoped for disintegration from [the] European Union.”
Ms. Mogherini told reporters in Brussels last week that her main message in Washington “will be to find common ground on which we want to cooperate [and] work together.”
She cited a range of issues that could come up, including improved efficiency at the United Nations, climate change and joint EU-U.S. policies toward Libya and Syria.
It was unclear how heavily trade issues, which dominated a visit British Prime Minister Theresa May made to Washington two weeks ago, will factor into Ms. Mogherini’s meetings.
While Mr. Trump has vowed to work toward a bilateral U.S. trade deal with Britain after it leaves the EU, the prospect of a new multilateral deal between Washington and EU member nations seems less and less likely.
Peter Navarro, the head of Mr. Trump’s new National Trade Council, has declared talks toward such a deal effectively dead.
The White House announced Feb. 3 that Vice President Mike Pence will visit Brussels and attend the Munich Security Conference later this month.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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