Donald Trump, Mike Pence and John Bolton – best known for their “erratic and aggressive” traits – are a “toxic mixture” that leaves Europe less secure, a reputable German MP has warned.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government hoped that it could quietly wait for the Trump administration to end, but that was “a bitter illusion,” Jurgen Trittin, formerly minister for the environment and now a prominent Green Party MP, argued in an op-ed for Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.
The sitting US administration combines the erratic destructiveness of Donald Trump with the neoconservative aggression of [Mike] Pence and [John] Bolton.
The German politician proceeded to up the ante: “This is a toxic mixture, it endangers Europe’s security.”
In support of his claim, Trittin listed a number of important accords that were derailed or abandoned by the US, including the Paris climate change agreement, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and – most recently – the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). Treaties aside, Trump also quit UNESCO, citing the UN body’s ‘anti-Israel stance.’
Meanwhile, the New START treaty which cut US and Russian nuclear arsenals by half will expire by 2021, Trittin noted. The milestone pact was inked in 2011 by then-presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev on the heels of ‘resetting’ strained US-Russia relations. But, eight years later, there is no sign that it may be prolonged.
With that in mind, Europe must turn its head to Russia as “it is time for a European disarmament initiative.”
NATO should withdraw tactical nuclear weapons from the continent and stop erecting US missile defense facilities if Russia concedes to reduce its stockpile of Iskander missiles.
Trittin is not the first German figure to raise concerns about Trump. Sigmar Gabriel, former vice-chancellor and foreign minister, has repeatedly labeled the US president “a threat to world peace” who wants “regime change” in Berlin.
Also on rt.com US training Europe to use tactical nukes against Russia is threat to non-proliferation – LavrovSentiments like these reflect what the German public makes of Trump’s policies. A 2018 poll revealed over three-quarters of Germans (79 percent) said they considered US President Trump to be a greater threat to world peace than his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
According to a 2019 survey by Civey, 85 percent of people in Germany saw US-German relations in a “negative” or even “very negative” light. Over 57 percent of Germans believed that their country should keep a greater distance from its ally across the Atlantic, while only 13 percent advocated closer ties.
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