Albares says there is no “problem” with the Trump administration despite defense spending and tariffs

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has assured that the Government does not have “No problem” with the new Donald Trump administrationwhile appearing again to dialogue before Washington’s plans to impose tariffs as of Wednesday.

Thus he has spoken at the press conference after the Council of Ministers after the telephone conversation that held his ‘number two’ last Friday, Diego Martínez Belío, and his American counterpart. In this call, as reported by the State Department, Christopher Landau urged Spain to increase defense spending in line with COMPROMISOS acquired within NATO.

“The call occurred in a very cordial tone”said the minister, the “same,” said, that there were in which the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and Trump after the election of this last November as well as the contact he maintained with other EU ministers with the American envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, on the banks of the Munich conference.

«From LuegOr we have no problem In maintaining all the necessary contacts, ”said Albares, after being asked when he plans to talk to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, with whom there has been no official contact despite the fact that he has been in office for more than two months and has held telephone conversations with dozens of ministers.

“I think it is good and it is beneficial that we have those cordial contacts that we are having,” he insisted, specifying that the conversation between the two high positions “dealt with multiple aspects” given the “very dense relationship” between the two countries and not only about defense expense.

However, he has considered that “it is the most normal in the world that two NATO allies at the moment in which European security and euroatlántic security are being openly challenged” talk about that issue.

There will also be the opportunity to continue talking about this matter at the Ministerial Summit of the Atlantic Alliance this Thursday and Friday in Brussels, which will attend precisely Rubio, with whom Albares has not clarified whether he will take advantage of.

Instruments in front of tariffs

As regards Trump’s plans to impose tariffs on numerous sectors, Albares has made it clear that the competences in commercial matters are assigned to Brussels and that the European Commission has the “instruments” to respond.

However, he has insisted on the dialogue. “Europeans believe in free trade and believe that any difference that may exist between commercial partners can be resolved through dialogue and that is our method,” he said.

Albares has emphasized that The United States and Europe are mutually their first partner and their first client And desire is to preserve that “mutually beneficial” commercial relationship. “If there were any tariff measure towards Europe, of course Europe has a common commercial policy with the instruments to respond to it, with the instruments to defend the integrity of our single market,” he stressed.

But in addition, he has noted, “we have the political will to use these instruments if necessary,” as the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen has made clear clearly. However, he has risted, “what we want is to preserve that commercial relationship that is overwhelmingly beneficial to American and Europeans together and to be able to solve everything through dialogue.”