'We should stick together': Top EU diplomat defends alliance with US

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Saturday defended the bloc's long-standing alliance with the US after a new national strategy issued by the Trump administration questioned Europe's future reliability.

"There's a lot of criticism, but I think some of it is also true; if you look at Europe, it has been underestimating its own power towards Russia for example," Kallas said at an annual diplomatic gathering in Doha.

"We should be more self-confident that's for sure. The US is still our biggest ally," she added at the Doha Forum.

The new US national security strategy published earlier this week claims Europe faces "civilizational erasure" due to migrants and paints a bleak picture of freedom of expression on the continent.

"I think we haven't always seen eye to eye on different topics, but I think the overall principle is still there. We are the biggest allies and we should stick together," Kallas said.

Released by the White House late on Thursday, the policy paper underscores President Donald Trump's "America First" approach, while strongly criticizing Europe.

"The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the European Union and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence," the text states.

Trump called the paper a "roadmap to ensure America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history".

The EU is concerned that a new US push to end the Russia-Ukraine war would result in a deal taking toll on Europe's security.