Editor-DN
Brussels:
Brussels said on Friday that Ursula van der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, will not attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington on January 20, but is expected to have “initial contact” with the incoming administration.
“There has been no invitation and no plans to attend,” EU spokeswoman Paula Pinho said. “We will try to contact the new administration soon.”
Foreign leaders are not traditionally invited to attend inaugurations of US presidents, although Trump reportedly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend this time.
Van der Leyen, who has been suffering from severe pneumonia in recent weeks, did not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration four years ago.
The European Union is nervously eyeing the return of the volatile former reality TV star to the White House at a dangerous moment for Europe.
The incoming US leader has pledged to end Russia’s war in Ukraine and European allies are desperate to convince him not to force a bad deal on the continent.
They are also scrambling to avoid trade tariffs that Trump has proposed.
Trump had already sparked a political firestorm on Tuesday by ruling out the use of military force to seize the self-governing Danish territory of Greenland.
Van der Leyen insisted on Thursday that the EU “will always protect our citizens and the integrity of our democracies and freedoms”.
But he insisted that “the US is one of our closest partners and we are committed to strengthening the transatlantic bond”.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
