Exclusive: EU Ambassador Reveals Next Challenges After Trump Trade Deal

Miami Herald

6 days ago

In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with Newsweek, European Union Ambassador to the United States Jovita Neliupšienė revealed the next priorities for the 27-member bloc in navigating the challenges associated with the longstanding and evolving partnership with the U.S. and other top geopolitical issues.
The conversation comes days after President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a historic trade deal, halving the 30 percent tariff rate threatened by the U.S. leader on most EU goods and spurring hopes of re-stabilizing transatlantic ties.
Neliupšienė said the deal has helped to achieve a level of "predictability and certainty" in the bilateral relationship. Now, the EU is moving to address lingering trials on other fronts, particularly as they relate to Russia's war in Ukraine, China's growing economic influence and the need for Europe to assert itself more strongly on the world stage.
And while Neliupšienė argues that the EU is currently looking to shore up independent security capabilities across Europe, she also said that it was simultaneously seeking to bolster its defense partnership with the U.S., including through the provision of arms, which Trump said amounted to the EU "purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars-worth of military equipment," as part of the recent deal.
"Because of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, and because for European countries, security is really an existential topic right now," Neliupšienė told Newsweek, "I think cooperation on the strategic level, but as well on defense procurement with the U.S., is extremely important."
The EU has emerged as a key player in supporting Ukraine since Russia's February 2022 invasion, sparking Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II. As of this month, the EU and its 27 member states have pledged $180 billion in assistance to Kyiv as it attempts to fend off its great-power neighbor.
The number surpasses the estimated $175 billion allocated on Ukraine-related aid by the U.S., which, under Trump, has repeatedly expressed skepticism about long-term commitments to the war. The White House is currently pushing both sides to sign a peace deal, breaking with the previous administration by pursuing direct talks with the Kremlin.
While Trump has more recently expressed more pointed criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and shortened his deadline for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, Neliupšienė argued that the EU committed indefinitely to ensuring Ukraine's victory in the conflict.
"I think that we have no choice of helping Ukraine and stepping up our support, making sure that they can defend themselves, that they can defend the principles they are fighting for," Neliupšienė said.
"I think that sometimes we forget the principle where we started," she added. "We will support it as long as it takes and as much as it takes for making sure that Ukraine actually can win."
Beyond military assistance, she explained that this endeavor would take further economic action, including additional sanctions and waning the continent off of Russian oil and gas, a measure supported by the recent trade deal through which the EU pledged to purchase some $750 billion dollars' worth of U.S. energy over the next three years.
"I really believe that there is really understanding at the moment among all 27 member states that this is the right thing to do and we will do it because there's no alternative," Neliupšienė said. "I don't see any alternative at the moment."
The only "alternative" she did identify was that "Russia can stop fighting that war, and then that will be probably the first step towards inspiring peace."
As for what an eventual settlement could look like, she emphasized that such a framework should be "really in the hands of Ukraine," while noting that the EU would continue to play a role in promoting a resolution.
"Russia's war in Ukraine is actually at our borders, at the European borders, and Europeans would probably full-heartedly support the peace settlement," Neliupšienė said. "And I think that, in this way, President Trump's effort is very much welcome."
"Yes, we have conversations of how we see that and what that could be, that could be on the European level, but it's definitely happening on the member state level as well," she added. "I don't see it as in a competition. I see that as everyone who can contribute to that should have a say."
Three days before the EU-U.S. trade deal was announced, EU leadership held a summit in the capital of Washington's leading global competitor, Beijing.
Among other things, the high-profile meeting produced an "upgraded export supply mechanism," through which the EU seeks to ease access to China's rare-earth elements. China dominates the supply chain of these critical metals, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the world's supply and 90 percent of processing, and instituted new export restrictions in April as trade tensions with the U.S. mounted.
But even with this breakthrough, serious issues remain in the relationship. One concern repeatedly brought up by the European side was China's reported export of dual-use technologies to Russia amid the war in Ukraine. Dual-use technologies — which can encompass everything from satellites to semiconductors — are developed for civilian use but have potential military uses as well.
"We have the situation that China is continuing to provide and to sell some of the of the dual-use [technology] and their components, which would then end up in the in the battlefield in Ukraine, which is not acceptable," Neliupšienė said, "because it prolongs the war."
"And I think that is a responsible responsibility of major actor in the region, to make sure it's not happening," she added.
Beijing has denied providing any "lethal equipment" to either side of the conflict, while also fostering efforts to develop its strategic partnership with Moscow.
Neliupšienė said the EU would also continue work to address other obstacles in the bloc's relationship with China, including a need for "rebalancing" trade relations. She said that the EU currently accounts for roughly 15 percent of China's exports, while EU exports to China were only around 8 percent.
The problem is compounded by what she saw as "non-market practices" on the part of China, including overcapacity, subsidized industry and lack of market access, which she said the EU was currently investigating.
"We are open for free trade. So, Chinese companies can participate in and be part of our market, while European companies do not necessarily get that," Neliupšienė said. "And their export control of the rare earth and permanent magnets has as well distorted economic relations."
Still, given China's growing role in global affairs, she acknowledged that the EU would continue to find ways to work with Beijing, even as it sought to compete and, in some cases, rival the People's Republic.
"You still have an element where we are glad to work with China," Neliupšienė said, "for example, on climate change, and how we move forward on green technologies, which I think that everyone who sees the situation in the world right now understands that there are certain things which we have to do as all major economic actors in here."
"So, it's like multiple relations," she added, "and I think that it will continue to be, as in our strategic documents, we are trading partners, we are competitors, and we are systemic rivals."
As the EU tackles challenges mounted by both Russia and China, Neliupšienė asserted that the first order remains on the home front.
"First of all, we have to concentrate on the on the challenges at home, and this Commission, in this cycle, what is needed for the European Union is actually to make sure that we increase our competitiveness," Neliupšienė said.
"And we can really concentrate on innovation, on research, on the things which make sure that our economy is growing, and we can contribute not only economic growth, but the jobs and prosperity for our people," she added.
These efforts also include ramping up defense spending at a time when the European Commission has already announced earlier this year that member states would spend some $685 billion — on top of more than $170 billion in EU loans — to mount a massive rearmament plan.
The push comes amid growing calls from EU leaders to curb reliance on the U.S. for security assurances, appeals that have been amplified by frictions that have emerged between the Trump administration and European allies.
As Neliupšienė notes, the process will likely take some time.
"The idea of this money actually is to make sure we are boosting our defense capabilities and defense production and defense industry," she said, "because, well, it's pretty clear that it was the request of the United States, and especially the current leadership, that the EU has to step up."
"Of course, it will never happen overnight," she added. "We are speaking about really high tech [platforms]. We are speaking about certain platforms of defense technologies which we have to keep up and to develop if we want to be more independent."
Ultimately, she said, "what for us is extremely important in this situation is to make sure we have more strategic independence, we have diversification, and we are really increasing the production and real defense industry on the ground, to have a possibility to not only to defend ourselves, but to deter."
Thus far, the recent trade deal paves the way for an improvement in EU-U.S. ties that trended toward uncertainty with Trump's election, his administration's courting of right-wing nationalist populist parties in Europe that have questioned the EU project and questions of the U.S. commitment to European security.
Neliupšienė remained confident that the EU and the U.S. would continue to find ways to cooperate on common challenges.
"Russia's war in Ukraine, this is one challenge. We have another geopolitical challenge, if you look at the map, the Middle East is not really somewhere else, it's at our borders," she said. "There are a lot of things to do, as we talked about China and overcapacity, economic security, this is where actually the EU and U.S., working together, can make a change and move this needle, which is actually needed globally."
"I don't think the United States can find a partner who would be closer, who would be more willing to cooperate than the European Union. And I do believe that, and I'm sure we will stand to our values," she added. "We are really a freedom- loving country, we are a democracy, we are a rule of law-based entity, and we will stand with those values. And I think that this is what makes this transatlantic relationship work."
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