Two days after Marco Rubio invoked European values against the backdrop of the Acropolis, a U.S.–Russian diesel agreement presented Europe with a very different reality. Beyond the immediate consequences for Ukraine, the episode raises a broader question about Europe’s economic vulnerability, strategic autonomy and its ability to deal with Russia from a position of strength.
There are sentences one does not particularly expect to write. As an Irish barrister, a Hungarian by birth and someone who has spent a considerable part of her professional life thinking about law, constitutional structures and European politics, I certainly never expected to write this one:
Donald Trump made me stop and think about a United Ireland.
Donald Trump, the president of the United States, who, from certain angle seems to work to dismantle the EU—and who, on the two most critical issues of his presidency to date, China and the Middle East, has done the exact opposite of what he promised, and what was expected, thereby setting the stage for profound political changes in the U.S.—met with Xi Jinping. In the United States. On home turf.
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