BUDAPEST: European leaders meeting in Budapest on Thursday urged Donald Trump from afar to avoid trade wars, maintain support for Ukraine and to refrain from unsettling the global order following his victory in the US presidential election. Trump’s win is a major challenge for Europe, opening an era of huge uncertainty at a time when the continent is already grappling for unity and its two biggest powers, Germany - whose government just broke apart - and France, are weakened.

Trump’s relationship with his European peers was tense and rocky for much of his first term, and his return to power brings uncertainty over US backing for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, the US commitment to the NATO military alliance and the prospect of tariffs on exports to the United States.

“I trust the American society,” European Council chief Charles Michel said as he and others urged Trump to continue to support Ukraine, as they arrived at a meeting of nearly 50 European leaders in Budapest. “They know it is in their interest to show firmness when we engage with authoritarian regimes. If the United States were weak with Russia, what would it mean for China?”

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said it was now up to the European Union to be united. No EU member state on their own can manage the upcoming challenges, she said.

On Ukraine, she said: “It is in all our interests that the autocrats of this world get a very clear message that is not the right of might, that the rule of law is important.” Many of the leaders said they were looking forward to working with Trump. The summit host, Hungary’s rightwing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is one of Trump’s few close allies among European leaders, and has said he would pop champagne corks if Trump won. Diplomats have speculated that Orban might arrange for Trump to address the European leaders by video link.

But others were blunt about concerns, including over trade and Trump’s brusque treatment of allies.

“President Trump is known sometimes for a degree of unpredictability, a degree of volatility, so we need dialogue,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden said. “We will seek dialogue, but we will not give up our principles.” Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he was concerned about the prospect of a trade war: “It should not be allowed to happen,” he said. “Let’s now try to influence the U.S. and Trump’s future policy so that he understands the risks involved.”

Adding to the uncertainty hanging over the Budapest gatherings, Germany’s three-party government broke apart on Wednesday evening as Chancellor Olaf Scholz sacked his finance minister and paved the way for a general election. “One thing is for sure, Europe is not strong without a strong Germany,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said.

The summit will first include a meeting of leaders of the wider European Political Community which includes non-EU states such as Britain, expected to renew their commitment to support Ukraine, before sessions on migration and economic security.

Mark Rutte, head of NATO, said it was important to see Ukraine as a problem that extends beyond Europe, describing Russia’s partnership with North Korea as “a threat, not only to the European part of NATO, but also to the US.”

In the evening the EU’s 27 leaders will weigh transatlantic relations, as well as Georgia, where the ruling Georgian Dream party, seen as increasingly pro-Russian, claimed victory in a disputed Oct. 26 election. The EU has frozen Georgia’s membership bid over concerns about democratic backsliding. – Reuters