US-Europe relations

Can favorable relations with U.S. President Donald Trump be maintained and his excessive “America first” policy also be stemmed? With his administration in its second year, French President Emmanuel Macron has a significant role to fulfill in this regard.

Last month, Macron visited the United States as its first state guest under the Trump administration. Bearing in mind the fact that the United States is going ahead with restrictions on steel and aluminum imports, Macron expressed concerns about “commercial war” in an address to the U.S. Congress.

He has good reason to assert that trade imbalance problems should be resolved at the World Trade Organization.

Macron also calls for maintaining the Iran nuclear accord, from which the United States had decided to withdraw.

Based on Trump’s assertion that the accord is “defective,” the French president has advanced a proposal for reconsidering the accord that includes restraints on Iran’s ballistic missile development.

The nuclear agreement is an international deal concluded between six countries — the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia — and Iran.

In exchange for the lifting of sanctions by the United States and European nations, Iran has reduced its nuclear activities.