Germany says ‘isolationist’ Trump is opening global power vacuum

BERLIN: Germany’s foreign minister called for the European Union to become a more self-confident global actor, prepared to take counter-measures when the United States crosses “red lines” and able to respond to Russian threats and Chinese growth.

Maas’s warning that the postWorld War 2 order “no longer exists” signals that Germany is starting to confront a president who seems to delight in challenging allies on issues from security to exports.

“The Atlantic has gotten wider under President Trump,” Maas said in a speech in Berlin on Wednesday. “Trump’s isolationist policy has opened a huge worldwide vacuum. Therefore our common response today to ‘America First’ must be ‘Europe United.”’

Maas also threw his weight behind French proposals to make the EU shipshape for a more uncertain world.

“We need a balanced partnership with the US, where we as Europeans act as a conscious counterweight when the US oversteps red lines,” he said.

Maas listed President Donald Trump’s Washington as a challenge for Europe, alongside more traditional rivals like Russia and China.

“Trump’s egotistical politics of ‘America First’, Russia’s attacks on international law and state sovereignty, the expansion of gigantic China: the world order we were used to - it no longer exists,” he said.