The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas has said the United States "does not like the European Union" and is actively seeking to fracture the bloc's unity, according to an interview with the Financial Times published Friday.
"What I think is actually important for everybody to understand is that the US has been very clear that they want to divide Europe. They don't like the European Union," Kallas told the FT.
The remarks came after more than a year of turbulence in transatlantic relations. The Trump administration this week launched trade investigations into the EU alongside China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Mexico over alleged unfair trade practices — moves that could result in new tariffs by this summer, following the US Supreme Court's dismantling of much of Trump's earlier tariff program last month. The European Commission said it would respond "decisively and proportionately" to any US breach of the existing trade agreement, while the chair of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee, Bernd Lange, said the investigations were unacceptable as they violate the US–EU trade deal.
Kallas said Washington's approach to the EU echoes tactics used by the bloc's adversaries, the FT reported. EU member states should not seek to deal with Trump bilaterally, she said — instead, they should present a united front, "because we are equal powers when we are together."
On defence, Kallas acknowledged a hard constraint: the bloc currently needs "to buy from America because we don't have the assets or the possibilities or the capabilities that we need," while adding that Europe must invest in building its own defence industry.
The comments landed against a broader pattern of pressure from Washington. Trump has repeatedly targeted the EU in his second term — imposing tariffs on member states and repeatedly raising the prospect of annexing Greenland, a move analysts say could effectively end the NATO alliance.
