Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has issued a dire warning about the future of Europe, saying the continent will be “finished” if it doesn’t act as one – after a week that saw fractures in EU countries’ foreign policy positions. This is reported by the news portal “Politico”.
Tusk, a pro-European centrist, wrote on social media on Monday that Europe would not be “taken seriously” if it was “weak and divided”: “neither by the enemy nor by the ally.”
“It is already clear. We must finally believe in our own strength, we must continue to arm ourselves, we must remain united like never before,” he said. “One for all and all for one. Otherwise we are finished.”
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Tusk’s warning came after US President Donald Trump renewed his threats to take control of Greenland, the self-governing Danish territory he has long coveted. “We need Greenland from a national security situation,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
Trump wants to talk about Greenland in 20 days
“We will deal with Greenland in about two months. Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days,” he added, without elaborating on what he meant.
The comments came after the US launched attacks on Venezuela and arrested its leader Nicolás Maduro in a nighttime operation. The dramatic deployment fueled fears in Europe that Washington might try to take over Greenland, prompting a sharp rebuff from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
The annexation of the Arctic island makes “absolutely no sense,” she said on Sunday – supported by the other Nordic states Norway, Finland and Sweden.
This is how the EU states reacted to the US intervention
According to Politico, the EU’s reaction to the US intervention in Venezuela was mixed. Foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called for “restraint” in a statement supported by 26 member states – with the exception of Hungary.
Spain, on the other hand, distanced itself from the EU and joined five Latin American countries in a much stronger statement condemning Washington’s attack on Venezuela’s sovereignty and calling for it not to exploit the country’s natural resources – against the backdrop of Trump’s announcement that he would take over its oil fields.
While most EU member states issued their own carefully worded statements calling for respect for international law, the news magazine said Italy took a more approving tone, describing military action as “legitimate in hybrid security attacks.”
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, on the other hand, spoke sharply, saying the US incursion into Venezuela was “further evidence of the collapse of the world order.” And Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote in a Facebook post on Monday that the “liberal world order is in dissolution.”