US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Europe Thursday to resolve the eurocrisis and seek ways to promote growth and jobs as she praised America’s “revitalized relationship” with the region.
On the eve of her 38th trip to Europe, Clinton told a Washington think-tank that the world was counting on European leaders to meet tough challenges ahead and offered assurances that the United States was not turning its back on old alliances.
“Our pivot to Asia is not a pivot away from Europe. On the contrary, we want Europe to engage more in Asia, along with us, to see the region not only as a market, but as a focus of common strategic engagement,” Clinton said. She outlined how in the past four years they had worked together on many key issues — from the conflict in Afghanistan to ways to rein in Iran’s suspect nuclear program, as well as the wars in Syria and Libya and climate change.
“But if the United States and Europe are not strong, stable, and prosperous in the long-term, our ability to tackle these and other issues will be put at risk,” the top US diplomat warned.
Both Europe and the United States had to make some tough choices as they sought to get their economies in order.
“The eurozone is slipping back into recession as austerity policies take effect,” she told the Brookings Institution.
“So it’s vital to the entire global economy that European leaders move toward policies that promote credible and sustainable growth and create jobs.”
But she acknowledged that “this is fundamentally a European problem that requires European solutions. America can’t and shouldn’t try to dictate any answer or approach.”
