London (AP) – Don’t unnecessarily oppose your enemy, says the basic principles of diplomacy. But as the US faces a trade war with China and various tensions abroad, President Donald Trump’s envoys are being sought to engrave allies and explain them.
Just this week, more than three US envoys were rushing to rescue them from the diplomacy bath.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Summoned a US diplomat In the country, to answer reports that at least three people with ties to Trump are carrying out secret impact operations. Greenlandthe territory of Denmark. France Summoned the US ambassadorTrump’s in-laws Charles Kushner over letters to the president Emmanuel Macron They argue that the country is not doing enough to fight anti-Semitism. Turkish American ambassador and longtime Trump friend Tom Barrack; I apologized Using the word “animal” while calling for a gathering of reporters to stay quiet at a press conference in Lebanon on Thursday.
But in two other cases, the Trump administration was on putt. Kushner did not appear in his summon, so the French took it in his second place. The top Danish diplomat attended a meeting in Copenhagen, and the State Department said the “productive conversation” continued. But behind the scenes in Washington, the Trump administration responded much more casually through officials who only spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The “Danish” said “we need to settle.”
A pattern appears
TSK-TSKING from the diplomatic world was probably a minor in itself.
But they are consistent with Trump’s dull spoken style, his “America’s first” approach to foreign policy, and his attitude towards reporters. And they track records of overturning the president’s norms. In fact, the State Department has supported Kushner’s letter to Macron, offering little in response, except that the government says it “does not control or direct” the actions of private citizens in Greenland.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly has dismissed the notion that recent diplomatic kerfuffles obscured Trump’s global status and blew his trust in envoys.
“President Trump has restored America’s status on the world stage, and his foreign policy achievements speak for itself,” Kelly said. Trade Transactionshis strike Above Iran Nuclear facilities and liberation Americans have been detained in Other countries As an example. “He has total confidence in the entire team to advance America’s first foreign policy agenda.”
The recent triple of anger towards American diplomats was the latest to Trump’s overseas appointees. Some raised their eyebrows During his first term as president. It is due, regardless of diplomatic experience, particularly to American practices (the parties) that hand over coveted posts to campaign donors and friends of the president.
Trump’s diplomats have a track record of annoying foreign governments. During his first term, many US ambassadors from Iceland to Germany and South Africa, and the European Union, reached under the skins of the host government, prompting subpoena, if not private complaints.
A former State Department official said Trump loved the propaganda received by these cases and often sent me notes congratulating the ambassador in question when their actions produced news reports.
The main exception to that was Trump’s EU ambassador, Gordon Sondland Dismissal A few days after Sondland testimony On Capitol Hill during Trump’s first bullet each minutes Over Ukraine.
The hearing touched on another troubling diplomatic issue – Trump kicked out the ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovic I testified that She felt pressured to issue a statement of support for Trump. “Woman,” Trump said in a call with President Voldimia Zelensky, “She’s going to go through a few things.”
Still, recent dust ups have surprised the risk of amplifying tensions among Western allies as the US and China compete for economic advantage. Meet-up story This fall soon among their leaders.
“I think the Trump administration is emphasizing that US-China rivalry is now the mainstay of changing international issues,” wrote Iver B. Neumann, director of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, an independent Norwegian think tank, in an email. “One of the US’s main assets in its rivalry is that China has only one (North Korea) while it has many allies.
What happened to France?
It started with Macron’s decision Recognize the Palestinian statewhich angered Israel and the United States because it revived the prospects of a two-state solution to a seemingly endless conflict.
Kushner’s answer, published on Sunday Wall Street Journalclaimed that such a “public statement harns Israel’s gesture towards the perception that the Palestinian state would endanger the lives of extremists, fuel violence and French Jews.” Kushner urged Macron, among other things, to “relinquish the steps that would justify Hamas and its allies.”
The French Foreign Ministry said it would “suppose it firmly” against Kushner’s allegations, declaring it “is not at the quality of France-US transatlantic relations and the resulting quality of trust between its allies.”
(Trump said several times in several contexts. “I don’t trust anyone.” Includes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The department summoned the US ambassador on Monday. He didn’t show it, so French officials I met the second place in the embassy Instead. Kushner, a real estate developer, is the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner;
How about Denmark?
Trump has recently been relatively quiet about his desire to acquire Greenland, Danish territory in the Arctic. For security purposes. March, Greenland I voted to determine my own future As we move towards independence from Denmark.
But Trump’s Tips that he can invade a giant island stand. So, when Danish main broadcaster reported on Wednesday that at least three people with ties to Trump were running secret impact operations in Greenland, the Danish Foreign Ministry described the top US diplomat, Mark Straw, a career member of foreign services.
The State Department said “the US government does not control or direct the actions of private citizens,” assessing its relationship with Denmark and “respects Greenlander’s rights to determine their future.”
Yun Sang, director of the China program at Washington’s nonprofit Stimson Center, said it is unlikely that Trump’s envoys will be responsibly blamed or changed agenda. However, the incident may serve as a warning that “we see what they’re saying and do it more carefully.”
“The ball is in courts in other countries and we will decide whether they are willing to put diplomatic relations with us even more at risk,” Sun wrote in an email. Doing so would “has a major impact on a much more important domain.”
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Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Armor Madani and Amelia Thomson Devaux contributed to the story from Washington.
