Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are going to have their first ever summit today in the Finnish capital Helsinki. Ahead of the meeting Trump said he was going in with “low expectations”. National security adviser John Bolton said the meeting would be “unstructured” and the US was not looking for “deliverable”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov echoed and said he had low expectations too.
Trump said last week, before the NATO summit, that Putin “may be the easiest” among NATO and UK. And asked if Putin is a friend of foe, Trump said “I really can’t say right now. As far as I’m concerned, a competitor.” Later on Sunday, Trump said in a CBS interview that “I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now you wouldn’t think of the European Union but they’re a foe.” He added that “Russia is a foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn’t mean they are bad. It doesn’t mean anything. It means that they are competitive.”
So it doesn’t matter what the meaning of “foe” is as Trump sees Russia, China and EU as “they”.
On the other side, EU seems to be having some emotional responses to what Trump said. European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said on Twitter that “calling your best friends foes only makes your real foes happy.” And, “Europeans and Americans are bound by history and their shared values. Europeans will never give up on America because America never gave up on us. That’s what friends are for.” European Council President Donald Tusk said on Twitter that “America and the EU are best friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake news.”
