Hamidreza Gholamzadeh stated in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations: The short-term issue between the Europeans and the United States, which has been jointly pursued for several years and is their priority, and perhaps the most important challenge for Europe and Trump’s America, is the case of the war in Ukraine, which the Trump administration is not willing to spend more on this war and is not willing to continue supporting Ukraine. Therefore, it has repeatedly announced that the Europeans themselves should spend and basically want this war to end sooner. However, the problem is that stopping the war at this point is not a victory from the Europeans’ perspective, and this is one of the important issues of dispute between the two sides.

He said: The second challenge for Europe and Trump, as per his previous administration, is the issue of NATO costs, based on which the Europeans must pay more to maintain NATO in Europe so that the two sides can probably reach an agreement on this issue, as they did during Trump’s previous term.

This expert on European and American issues continued: Other challenging issues include current cases such as climate approaches and international cooperation. Trump does not align with Europe in these areas and prefers to be unilateral. It is natural that role-playing and collaboration with the Europeans will be affected by these issues, and they will have serious disagreements in these areas.

Gholamzadeh emphasized that for Europe to maintain its identity, it must maintain a policy of multilateralism in general issues because its credibility comes from pursuing this policy so that it can somehow move forward with the Trump administration and not purely surrender. However, a strategic point about Europe’s view of the Trump administration could be the underlying layer of all these discussions. Of course, in the previous period, this strategic point was tangible. It became serious, and even during the Biden term, there were discussions about it, and that is the “feeling of Europe lagging behind” America. He continued: Europe sees itself as severely lagging behind America in some areas, including military, international politics, and advanced technologies, and this is a matter of concern for them. Just as they feel seriously weak in the military field because they do not have the power and independence to act concerning America. Politically and internationally, they do not play a serious role in international cases, except for Lebanon, where France has historically intervened, and to a small extent in the case of Syria; even in the case of Ukraine, they are subject to the status quo. In the issue of technology and nanotechnology, Europeans also feel severely lagging behind, and now this feeling has become even more so. Because in the issue of technology, Europeans are caught between China and America, and in order to survive in this field, they are forced to side with one of the two sides, and in this area, they are more consumers. Therefore, the idea of ​​forming a European army and playing a greater role in foreign policy and technological development has been pursued for several years, but achieving this goal will take time.

This expert on European and American issues stated how Europe would confront these challenges in the face of Trump: The first option is to bow to Trump’s demands, for example, in Ukraine, NATO, and technology and the development and maintenance of multilateralism, to continue resorting to a policy of accompaniment and appeasement, or to generally confront Trump’s monopolistic approach.

He continued: In Trump’s first term, some countries tried to gain his approval by accompanying Trump, but now incidents such as Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal, etc. have worried them, and they see what kind of literature they are dealing with and this creates serious concern that he may approach them from the same hegemonic position in the future. The former Australian Prime Minister wrote a note before the US election and recently gave an interview about the same note, saying that the way to interact with Trump is not patronizing but to accompany and listen to him. Incidentally, he should understand that, in the form of the second option, you have authority, and you stand up; only then will he respect and back down from his own position. In fact, this note warns Europeans and the whole world that if they are to remain silent in the face of Trump, there will be heavy consequences for them.

Gholamzadeh said: In a sense, the tendency towards the extreme right has also increased in Europe and will probably go up further; the result is that more conservative governments will come to power that will not be very supportive of multilateralism; therefore, the conditions for Europe in the future will not be easy.

Regarding the impact of the weakening of multilateralism in the world, he stated that this is not good because it reduces the role of international organizations and rational approaches. He said that debates increase tension, which can be a significant threat. On the other hand, there have been many times when cooperation between Europe and the United States in international forums has advanced everything in their favor. Naturally, the number and severity of these issues decrease in these circumstances. If issues such as the Al-Aqsa storm and the condemnation of the Zionist regime arise, if they are not worried about the pressure of the Zionist lobby, the independence of Europeans can help them make the right decisions, and they did not fall into the game of Trump and America.

This expert on European affairs noted: What is important about Trump today is his tactical retreat, not that he is pacifist, introverted, and isolated and tends to follow the Monroe Doctrine. In fact, Trump is making a temporary tactical retreat to strengthen America from within so that it can carry out more serious attacks and deconstructions similar to the issue of the Canadian annexation plan in the near future. That is why Europeans feel threatened, and perhaps it is better to accompany the international community so that this American excess does not go as Trump wants.