BRUSSELS (AP) — A top European Union official on Monday warned the United States not to interfere in European affairs and said only European citizens can decide which parties should govern them.

European Council President Antonio Costa’s comments came in reaction to the Trump administration’s new national security strategy, which was published on Friday and portrays European allies as weak while offering tacit support to far-right political parties.

It is “good” that the strategy presents European countries as allies, but “the allies do not threaten to interfere in the internal political decisions of their allies,” Costa said.

“What we cannot accept is the threat of interference in European political life. The United States cannot replace European citizens in choosing which parties are good or bad,” he said in Paris at the Jacques Delors Institute, a think tank.

European Council President Antonio Costa's comments came in reaction to the Trump administration's new national security strategy, which was published on Friday and portrays European allies as weak while offering tacit support to far-right political parties.
European Council President Antonio Costa’s comments came in reaction to the Trump administration’s new national security strategy, which was published on Friday and portrays European allies as weak while offering tacit support to far-right political parties.

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The strategy criticized European freedom of expression and migration policy.

America’s allies in Europe face the “prospect of civilizational erasure,” the document said, raising questions about their long-term reliability as American partners.

But Costa, who chairs summits of the EU’s 27 national leaders, said that “the history of Europe has taught us that you cannot have freedom of expression without freedom of information.”

The former Portuguese prime minister also warned that “there will never be freedom of expression if citizens’ freedom of information is sacrificed for the objectives of technological oligarchs in the United States.”

The security strategy is the administration’s first since President Donald Trump returned to power in January.

It radically breaks with the course set by the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden, which sought to revitalize American alliances.

It also comes as the United States seeks to end Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine, a goal that national security strategy says is of vital interest to the United States.

But the text makes clear that the United States wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years in which Moscow was treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core US interest to “restore strategic stability with Russia.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the document “absolutely corresponds to our vision.” Over the course of the war, Russia has worked to drive a wedge between NATO allies, particularly between the United States and Ukraine’s main backers in Europe.

“If we read the part about Ukraine carefully, we can understand why Moscow shares this view,” Costa said. “The goal of this strategy is not a just and lasting peace. It is only about the end of hostilities and the stability of relations with Russia.”

“Everyone wants stable relations with Russia,” he added, but “we cannot have stable relations with Russia when Russia remains a threat to our security.”

Senior EU officials and intelligence officials have warned that Russia could be in a position to launch an attack elsewhere in Europe within three to five years if it defeats Ukraine.