Former UK official: Trump & Putin want Europe divided

AlArabiya English

Former UK Minister of State for Europe Denis MacShane says Trump and Putin prefer a divided Europe, making it easier to negotiate with individual states over a united EU.  #Trump #Putin

Transcript

00:00Where do you think that comes from, that hatred of Europe?

00:03Very simply, well, for Mr Putin, it's the same.

00:07What Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have in common is,

00:11they want the Europe of the 1920s, 30s back.

00:13I don't mean, you know, fascists and all that stuff,

00:17but they want smaller countries that don't cooperate,

00:23that can be picked off or bought off one by one by one.

00:27And what Europe's done, and by accident more than great design,

00:31is to sink a lot of differences.

00:34And on trade, above all, since day one,

00:38all trade on behalf of all EU member states,

00:41doesn't matter if it's mighty industrial Germany,

00:43it doesn't matter if it's tourist ancient history Greece,

00:47doesn't matter if it's wonderful cuisine France, Italy,

00:52all their trade is done by the European Union officials

00:57working with the national officials,

00:59so that Europe speaks as one voice.

01:01And when they do, it's a very, very powerful bloc.

01:05And so Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin,

01:08and I'm sure Mr Xi in China,

01:10would like to see Europe disaggregate again

01:13into individual nations.

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