MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/. European integration was carried out in the interest of Washington, and not the other way around, as US President Donald Trump suggested, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook on Wednesday in response to the US leader’s claims that the EU had been established to "take advantage of the United States".

According to the Russian diplomat, the former US presidents that saw the beginning of the European integration process would have been taken aback by Trump’s statements. "Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy are rolling over in their graves," Zakharova wrote.

"After the Second World War, the US listed the formation of the new economic order among its main goals. The aim was clear to everyone, to liberalize world trade, to create a market for their own goods, in short to set their own rules of the game in the sphere of duties and resources. Most of all, Washington feared the return of Europe’s trade wars that undermined American economic figures and led to tough economic crises, which in turn caused wars," the spokeswoman noted.

She pointed out that the United States had made an important step in this direction by implementing the White-Morgenthau plan on the establishment of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to provide loans for a post-war recovery. "This was the basis for the new economic model of the world. This is essentially the basis of European economic and political integration," Zakharova concluded.

On Tuesday, Trump said during a conference in the White House that the EU had been formed to "take advantage of the United States". He claimed that former American presidents "had no idea" about this.