Striking softer tone, Vance says US and Europe on ‘same team’

WASHINGTON: Striking a notably softer tone than his past remarks on Europe, US Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that the United States and the continent are on the same side.

“I do still very much think the US and Europe are on the same team,” Vance told the Munich Leaders Meeting in Washington. “I still think that this European alliance is very important, but I think that for it to be important and for us to be real friends with each other -- and I think that we are very much real friends -- we´ve got to talk about the big questions,” he said.

Vance shocked Europe when he used a February speech at a security forum in Munich to attack EU policies on immigration and free speech. The vice president charged in those remarks that free speech was in retreat across Europe, and that censorship was a bigger threat than Russian or Chinese military aggression.

“No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants,” he added in February, defending populist right-wing parties. Vance also triggered a blazing row with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in late February, as President Donald Trump jumped in to berate the Ukrainian leader too.

And Trump dispatched the former Ohio senator to Greenland in March to back up the president´s territorial claims over the Danish-ruled island. But on Wednesday, Vance spoke about ties that bring Europe and the United States together.

“European civilization and American civilization, European culture and American culture, are very much linked, and they´re always going to be linked,” he said. “I think it´s completely ridiculous to think that you´re ever going to be able to drive a firm wedge between the United States and Europe.”