‘Trump building a new, liberal world order’

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s top diplomat has promised a new democratic world order in which Washington would strengthen or jettison international agreements as it saw fit to stop “bad actors” such as Russia, China and Iran from gaining.

In a twist on Trump’s “America First” policy, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump was not abandoning its global leadership but reshaping the post-World War II system on the basis of sovereign states, not multilateral institutions.

“We are rallying the noble nations to build a new liberal order that prevents war and achieves greater prosperity,” Pompeo told diplomats and officials in a foreign policy speech.

“We are acting to preserve, protect, and advance an open, just, transparent and free world of sovereign states,” he said, adding that China’s ability to benefit from the current US-led system of trade and other agreements was “the poisoned fruit of American retreat”.

Pompeo said Trump was also pushing both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to stop funding countries such as China, saying they already had access to financial markets to raise capital. He rejected concerns among many traditional US allies that Trump is undermining the West by withdrawing from climate, free-trade and arms control accords. Pompeo said such criticism was “plain wrong”.

Trump was reforming the liberal order, not destroying it. Pompeo cited Britain’s decision to quit the EU as a sign supranational organisations were not working. He also took aim at “bureaucrats” responsible for upholding multilateralism “as an end in itself” and cast doubt on the EU’s commitment to its citizens. That drew a rare rebuke from the European Commission, the bloc’s executive. Its chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas said the EU executive was subject to control by citizens via the directly elected European Parliament and by the governments of the member states.

European leaders are troubled by Trump’s rhetoric and say his decision to pull out of the Paris climate change accord and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal undermine European priorities.

Alluding to Trump’s policies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned of “the rule of the jungle” replacing the rule of law. Pompeo said: “Our administration is... lawfully exiting or renegotiating outdated or harmful treaties and trade agreements that don’t serve our sovereign interests, or those of our allies.”