The US is confident of a reset in transatlantic relations when a new EU leadership takes office later this year, Washington’s top envoy to Brussels said on Tuesday. US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland said that meetings this week between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the EU’s incoming top officials went “extraordinarily well,” AFP reported.
The US and Europe have been caught up in a series of feuds over trade, Brexit, ties with Iran, and climate change, with Europe blaming the disagreements on the go-it-alone diplomacy of President Donald Trump.
Pompeo made the trip “to see the four EU leaders with the objective of resetting our relationship,” Sondland said. “Our relationship had reached multiple impasses on multiple fronts and resulted in a lot of uncomfortable, cranky conversations.”
Pompeo met Ursula von der Leyen, who will become president of the Commission, the EU’s incoming foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell of Spain, and Belgium’s PM Charles Michel, who will take over as the EU Council’s president.