"There are challenges, frankly, posed by the new US administration in terms of trade regulations, in terms, also, of what our position should be on solving conflicts in the world. So, of course, we have to talk to [US President] Donald Trump because he was chosen by the Americans to be their president, but we have to do it with European conviction and promoting our interests and our values," Hollande said.
The politicians also spoke about the growing internal and external threats, including the rise of populism across Europe.
"What threatens Europe doesn't only come from outside. It is also from inside. This means the rise of extremists who use external factors to cause disruption internally," Hollande said.
On Thursday, French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, speaking in the Senate, that Europe had to respond "adequately" to Washington adjusting its foreign and trade policy to put its interests first.
Trump was officially inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States on Friday, January 20, after he beat his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump has since begun to fulfill his campaign promise to bring jobs back to the United States and to revise the country's trade agreements by discarding Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade treaty that includes 12 countries from Pacific Rim region, and promising to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The fate of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union and of the potential cuts to the US contribution to NATO still has to be decided.
