Allies see 2 sides of Trump
US president says tour a ‘home run’
TAORMINA, Italy, May 28, (Agencies): In Sicily, Donald Trump listened attentively during complex G7 debates over trade and climate change, smiled for the cameras, and for the most part refrained from provocative tweets.
In Brussels, he bashed NATO partners for not spending more on defence, shoved the prime minister of Montenegro and renewed his attacks on Germany’s trade surplus with the United States.
America’s allies witnessed the two sides of Trump on his first foreign trip as US president, a nine-day tour that began with sword dancing in Saudi Arabia and vague pledges in Israel to deliver Middle East peace.
As Trump headed home, European officials were left with mixed feelings: relief that he had been patient enough to listen to their arguments and unsettled by a Jekyll-and-Hyde figure who is still finding his way on the big policy issues.
“It all fits with his strategic ambiguity approach to life,” said Julianne Smith of the Centre for a New American Security. “It may do wonders when dealing with adversaries. But it doesn’t work when dealing with allies,” she said.
Other leaders of the Group of Seven nations had viewed with trepidation their summit, held at a cliff-top hotel overlooking the Mediterranean, after four preparatory meetings failed to clear up differences with the Trump administration on trade, how to deal with Russia and climate change.
But in the end, officials said, the result was better than they had feared.
The final communique acknowledged a split between the United States and its six partners over honouring the 2015 Paris accord on climate change. That followed a debate with Trump that German Chancellor Angela Merkel described as “very dissatisfying”.
However on trade, Trump bowed to pressure from allies to retain a pledge to fight protectionism. And on Russia, he did not insist on removing - as some allies had feared - the threat of additional sanctions for Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine.
Willing
“I found him very willing to engage, very curious, with an ability and desire to ask questions and to learn from all his interlocutors,” said Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, the G7 summit’s host.
Still, there was irritation at Trump’s refusal to show his hand on the Paris agreement to curb carbon emissions. Near the end of the summit, he tweeted teasingly that he would make a decision on Paris next week, leaving delegations to scratch their heads about why he could not commit in Taormina.
The most critical words were reserved for Trump’s appearance at NATO headquarters in Brussels, which was described as a “disaster” by more than one European official.
With the leaders of America’s NATO partners standing like school children behind him, Trump upbraided them for not spending more on defence and repeated the charge that some members owed “massive amounts of money” from past years — even though allied contributions are voluntary.
Meanwhile, President Trump on Saturday said his maiden trip abroad was a “home run” and he vowed to overcome the threat of terrorism, concluding a grueling five-stop sprint that ended with the promise of an imminent decision on the much-discussed Paris climate accord.
Trump ended his nine-day trip with a speech to US troops in Sicily, where he recounted his visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Belgium and Italy and his work to counter terrorism.
The president said recent terrorist attacks in Manchester, England and Egypt underscored the need for the US to “defeat terrorism and protect civilization.”
“Terrorism is a threat, bad threat to all of humanity,” Trump said, standing in front of a massive American flag at Naval Air Station Sigonella. “And together we will overcome this threat. We will win.”
Trump tweeted earlier in the day that he would make a final decision next week on whether to withdraw from the climate pact. European leaders he met with at the Group of 7 summit in Sicily have been pressuring Trump to stay in the accord, arguing that America’s leadership on climate is crucial.