Diplomat warns of waning U.S. influence with Europeans
The foreign minister of Slovenia, a small Balkan country that many Americans associate with native daughter Melania Trump, came to Washington, D.C., last week to warn that the United States must make its leadership more visible in Europe or risk being eclipsed by China and Russia.
Miro Cerar, a former prime minister who now is Slovenia’s top diplomat, met Friday with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton. It was the first official visit paid to Washington by a Slovenian foreign minister since 2010.
Though Slovenia is a nation of just 2 million people, it has attracted a lot of interest from China, Cerar said in an interview with The Washington Post. The United States has been much less visible by comparison, he added.
“It’s not enough to have good economic cooperation,” he said. “I tell you, the Chinese come to Europe. As prime minister, I met five times with the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang in order to discuss political relations and business. So I think it would be very good if our friends and allies in the United States would be more present in the region.”
At a time when the United States is turning inward with an “America First” agenda, China and Russia have expanded their influence around the world. Russian foreign aid has increased 300 percent since 2010, while U.S. foreign aid has been a target of the White House’s proposed budget cuts before being restored in Congress.
China has been even more ambitious, building infrastructure projects such as ports, railways, airports, stadiums and power plants throughout Africa and Latin America. It’s tactics are the same in Slovenia, where Cerar said China offers to build infrastructure quickly with cheap money that leaves the country in debt but is too alluring to turn down.