European leaders gather chiefly to discuss defence but US president’s threat of trade war dominates agenda

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has just been addressing the media on her arrival in Brussels.

She spoke about the need for Europe to “do more, together” in defence and look at how new initiatives can be funded.

We were listening carefully to those words and of course we are preparing also on our side. What is clear, there are no winners in trade wars.

If US starts a trade war, the one laughing on the side is China. We are very interlinked. We need America, and America needs us as well.

I think that tariffs are always bad. Tariffs are bad for trade, they are bad for the US, bad for those who seek tariffs imposed.

The answer to tariffs is to reply with same actions.