MINISTER FOR FOREIGN Affairs Helen McEntee has said that Ireland’s relationship with the United States is “going through a rocky period” and that the major world power under the Trump administration has moved back to foreign policies that it would have held “in the past”.

She was speaking in Cairo in Egypt during a tour of the Middle East this week in which she focused on issues such as the instability in Iran and the continuing blockade against some aid intended for Gaza with her counterparts. 

Asked about whether Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s comments about the need for increased cooperation between the EU and China during the visit to the region were a sign that Ireland and the EU more widely were distancing themselves from the US, McEntee strongly denied it was the case. 

“In terms of decoupling with the US? Absolutely not. I mean we’re going through a rocky period, I think in terms of tariffs and changes in foreign policy from the current president,” she said. 

However McEntee added that Ireland has to “work with” the US, which is in practice one of our “strongest allies” in order to ensure we are getting the best deal possible amidst tariff changes, and in addressing global challenges. 

“I mean think of the meeting in Paris last week in relation to Ukraine. The US were there at the table because they want to work with the EU, because they realise the importance of what’s happening in Ukraine and the implications for wider security across the EU,” she said. 

On Trump’s recent escalation of comments about the USA taking control of the Danish territory of Greenland “one way or another” this week, she said that EU member states are operating under the assumption that it is “unthinkable” that the US are going to potentially invade a NATO country. 

“The President is there, but politics means that people change as well, and we need to be planning for the future as well,” she added. 

While McEntee was meeting with the king of Amman in Jordan on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministers of Greenland and Denmark were meeting with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss Trump’s publicly announced intention of taking over the territory. 

McEntee, speaking to reporters the day before said: “I think we’re at a really weird juncture here, I’ll be honest.” 

“I think we have to work on the basis that it’s very hard to comprehend anything other than a NATO country would never, by force, take or invade another NATO country,” she emphasised. 

Asked about Trump framing the takeover as inevitable, she said, “People say things, and I know the President himself has said things and then rolled back. It’s been the case on many different issues.

“But I think we have to work on the basis that this could not happen, because of the wider implications for NATO and for security globally, it is unthinkable given the challenges that are happening across the globe,” she said. 

She also emphasised the need for Ireland to tailor its approach to the issue of progressing the peace plan for Gaza according to the need to cooperate with the US on the issue. 

In the context of the Occupied Territories Bill, which McEntee received further legal advice on from the Attorney General, McEntee said that she would not be rushing the legislation, as her focus is on securing the stability of the rocky ceasefire in Gaza, and moving the US plan for peace along. 

“It’s very clear that there is huge opposition, but not just from Israel, but from the US and others to this bill. That’s not a reason not to do it. There’s been opposition to a lot of things that we have done. However, we have to balance that.

“What do we have to offer here? With Our experience with Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement and our relationship with Egypt and our partners, including, Jordan, we have an ability here to play a really strong role in the actual next stages and the future process, so we have to balance all this,” she said. 

McEntee said that the Attorney General will be coming back to her “as soon as possible” about other implications of the bill, including potential economic repercussions. 

During her tour of the Middle East she met with the Foreign Minister of Egypt, and King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein of Jordan. 

McEntee met with Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty in Cairo.

In Jordan she visited a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) camp for Palestinian refugees and heard that US funding cuts have meant that the organisation will have to cut salaries and teaching hours in its schools across the Middle East, where they essentially function as the public sector for displaced Palestinian refugees. 

McEntee said that she will impress the need for continued funding for UNRWA on her EU colleagues in the coming weeks and months. 

For its part, Ireland pledged an additional €42 million for humanitarian aid for Palestinians, with a portion of that money to go directly to UNRWA. 

However the US was previously the main funder of the organisation, and they’ve been left with a shortfall of hundreds of millions, and barely kept services in place to the same level last year.