MADRID, February 13. /TASS/. Europe has left the world in the hands of the United States, having abdicated from fulfilling any geostrategic role in world affairs whatsoever, says an analytical article published by leading Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

According to the Madrid-based publication, former US President Donald Trump is only partially right when he says that Europeans do not pay for their own security. According to the paper, if it is true that Europe is not paying for its defense, it is equally true that in return it has completely abdicated playing any geostrategic role whatsoever. The EU has delegated responsibility for "ruling the world" to the US, even with respect to issues directly related to what is happening on Europe's own doorstep, the newspaper says.

The article also states that, unlike the US, the EU invests in social peace. However, Europe has cultivated a hostile, violent environment around it, the article goes on to say. Without the protection of the United States, the EU would have to make a choice: be tougher than those who seek to do it harm, or fight for its own rights.

Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president in the November election, on February 10 recalled a meeting with NATO leaders during his presidency. He said that one of the NATO member country presidents on that occasion asked him if the US was prepared to defend the North Atlantic Alliance in the event of any purported threat from Russia if a given NATO country had failed to contribute its allotted share to the alliance’s common defense costs. Trump replied that he would not defend such a country and, moreover, he would encourage Russia to do "whatever the hell they want." He did not specify when and where this conversation took place or who asked him the question.