Senior European Union official said on Tuesday that there is no sign that US President Donald Trump’s administration planned to lift sanctions on Russia over its activities in Ukraine
He warned that unilateral American sanctions on Russia could destabilise some European energy markets.
“We have had no such indication,” David O’Sullivan, the head of the EU mission to the United States, told a Senate Foreign Relations
Committee hearing on how the United States and EU could work together to push back against Russian aggression.
“I think there is still remarkable unity of purpose between the United States and the European Union with regard to those issues,” O’Sullivan said.
Allegations by US intelligence agencies that Russian actors were behind the hacking of senior Democratic Party operatives and spreading disinformation during the 2016 US presidential election have lingered over Trump’s tenure.
Democrats alleged that the Russians wanted to tilt the election toward the Republican, who worried lawmakers from both parties during his campaign by calling for warmer relations with Russia.
Trump has dismissed that claim and Russia has denied the allegations.
During the hearing, Corker questioned the wisdom of legislation to impose more sanctions on Russia over its aggressive actions in Ukraine and Syria.
Senator Ben Cardin, the foreign relations committee’s top Democrat, drafted such a bill earlier this year.
It is sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans.
Corker asked O’Sullivan whether it would be preferable for the United States to act unilaterally or work with the European Union on such sanctions. (Reuters/NAN)