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Donald Trump, the US president, Donald Tusk, the European Council president, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, during the EU-US summit in Brussels on 25 May 2017. Photo: European Commission 

So said Jean-Claude Juncker during an interview with Politico magazine.

The European Commission president and former Luxembourg prime minister was referring to the testy relations between EU leaders and Donald Trump, the US president, particularly during last week’s G7 and Nato summits, and to Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change accord.

“I am not very happy with the idea that we might now work even more closely with China than we are able to do with the Americans,” Juncker said in the Politico interview, which was published Thursday evening.

He meets Chinese leaders during an EU-China summit on Friday.

Nevertheless, Juncker stated: “We must try to keep the transatlantic relationship in a good condition.”