Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot views Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations on Tuesday as aimed mainly at the US midterm elections and reflecting a view of the world that is “completely distorted and the opposite of ours.”
Speaking to Belga News Agency outside UN headquarters in New York, Prévot said the US president appeared to have “mistaken the assembly” as his address was largely devoted to praising his domestic record.
Prévot said he believed Trump’s remarks should be seen in the context of the approaching US midterm elections in November, in which he was clearly trying to make the most of his own reading of global affairs.
The Belgian Foreign Minister said it was no surprise that Trump had again attacked action on climate change, gender issues and migration.
It also came as no surprise that the US president again attacked international judicial institutions intended to ensure there is no impunity for those responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity, he noted.
This was a reference to a direct attack by Trump on the International Criminal Court, which he called an 'out of control institution,' and 'an evil group of people,' while urging its members to resign.
“These are all issues on which his view of the world is the exact opposite of ours,” Prévot said.
Asked about Trump’s promises of swift peace agreements in Iran and Ukraine, Prévot said such outcomes would “obviously be an ideal to achieve as quickly as possible.”
However, he added that Trump had recently presented many peace deals that looked promising on paper but had failed to materialise on the ground.
Prévot was due stress the importance of multilateralism as the “main shield for medium-sized powers against imperialist or hostile powers” in his address to the UN later on Tuesday.
