High-level EU-US diplomatic talks are called off as transatlantic tensions rise

Associated Press

26-02-2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — A planned meeting between European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Secretary of State Marco Rubio was abruptly canceled Wednesday due to 'scheduling issues,' coming as political tensions have increased between Europe and the United States.
Officials from both sides blamed scheduling challenges for preventing the pair, who last met at the Munich Security Conference in Germany last month, from meeting in Washington.
However, European officials said they were caught off guard, and, notably, Kallas had previewed her planned talks with Rubio just two days earlier.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has thrown the partnership between the U.S. and Europe into turmoil by pledging to charge higher taxes on imports from Europe that he says will match tariffs faced by American products. EU officials have traveled to Washington trying to head off a trade war.
Top Trump administration officials also have warned Europe that it must start taking responsibility for its own security, including Ukraine, and sidelined the Europeans from their initial talks with Russia on ending the war. In a remarkable shift, the U.S. split with its European allies by refusing to blame Russia for its invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations this week and joined Moscow in voting against a Europe-backed Ukrainian resolution.
In a bid to mend relations, French President Emmanuel Macron was in Washington on Monday for a White House meeting with Trump seeking support. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose country is no longer a member of the EU but often aligns itself with the continental bloc on foreign policy, is due to visit Thursday.
Kallas herself had said Monday that she would be holding talks with Rubio 'on the issues that are of interest to both of us,' which for the EU are chiefly Russia's war on Ukraine and transatlantic relations.
'It is clear that the statements coming from the United States make us all worried,' she told reporters after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Kallas said she hoped the EU-U.S. relationship can continue to function.
'So far, we do not have any indication that it would not. Of course it is going to change, that is very clear. But we should not throw something out the window that has worked well so far,' she said.
In a terse text message, her office referred all questions about why the meeting was canceled at short notice to the State Department.
A senior U.S. official said the planned meeting, which had never appeared on Rubio's public schedule, had been pulled down due to 'an unavoidable scheduling conflict.' The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Rubio attended Trump's Cabinet meeting at the White House, which began late Wednesday morning.
The cancellation came less than a week after the State Department's policy planning office sent an internal memo instructing officials who deal with Europe to highlight two specific issues in interactions with European counterparts. The Feb. 21 memo, seen by The Associated Press, also mentioned tentative plans for an upcoming Rubio meeting with Kallas.
The two issues of concern identified in the memo were 'Freedom of Speech and Free Opposition' and 'Migration.'
On the former, the memo said Rubio and other U.S. diplomats should emphasize in their discussions with European officials the importance that the Trump administration attaches to free speech.
It noted that Vice President JD Vance had said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference this month that the West should 'unite around free speech, halt censorship, reject suppressing opposition, jailing people for tweets and memes, etc.'
'The United States cannot continue supporting a continent that drifts in an authoritarian direction,' the memo said. 'It's bad for Europe and bad for us.'
On migration, the memo said U.S. officials, including Rubio, should refer to Europe's 'de facto open borders policy' as a 'disaster' that must end. Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration and carrying out mass deportations a signature priority.
'The United States is changing course on migration policy under Trump,' it said. 'It's well past time for Europe to do the same. We want you to remain civilization partners and to do that, you must get this under control.'
It was not clear if the blunt language in the memo contributed to the cancellation of the Rubio-Kallas meeting.
Although her meeting with Rubio was pulled down, Kallas was due to meet with U.S. senators and members of Congress to discuss the war in Ukraine and EU-U.S. ties during her two-day trip to Washington and to take part in a talk about those issues at the Hudson Institute research organization.
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