Apparently mutual with trump regularly expressing his admiration of putins strength. Today, however, The American President seemed to place his russian counterpart on the other side of a purported war against Western Civilisation. During a speech in the polish capital, warsaw, he called on russia to stop destabilising ukraine and other countries and to end support for hostile regimes such as those in syria and iran. With the pair due to meet tomorrow at the 620 summit in hamburg, newsnights diplomatic editor mark urban has been exploring The American President s apocalyptic warning. Its the president s second visit to europe and todays speech was billed as a big Foreign Policy moment. Given in warsaws Krasinski Square in front of a memorial to the 191m uprising against the nazis, an appreciative audience had been brought in by the polish government. It fell to the first lady to do the warm up. The president of the United States, donald] trump. And with that, trump set out his stall of a west in existential crisis and his formula for success amid these myriad threats. While we will always welcome new citizens who share our values and love our people, our borders will always be closed to terrorism and extremism of any kind. Today, the west is also confronted by the powers that seek to test our will, undermine our confidence and challenge our interests. To meet new forms of aggression, including propaganda, financial crimes and cyber warfare, we must adapt our alliance to compete effectively in new ways and on all new battlefields. And here, having alluded to the russian and chinese threats, he did at last state his commitment to natos mutual defence provision, article five. But it was a Distinctly Trumpian Formula that shed little light on the issue of how the west revives its fortunes economically. Can it be done . A large part of the answer to that Question Depends On Whether Macron and merkel can reignite the Franco German motor, rewrite europes fiscal rules and really generate growth again on the european continent. That is where the hope lies and, if you like, the glass of champagne is half full at the moment in paris and in berlin. Todays speech owes much to white house strategy boss steve bannon. You have an Expansionist Islam and an expansionist china, right . They are motivated, they are arrogant, they are on the march and they think the Judaeo Christian west is on the retreat. His view of the world revolves around hard power and the need for spiritual renewal in the west. Even so, many more mainstream conservatives welcomed todays address. I think the president struck the right tone on polish soil today, a strong reiteration, i think, of the importance of the Transatlantic Alliance and a reminder of the values that hold the west together. The illiberality of this message and emphasis on religious faith worked well for this polish audience, but its out of kilter with much of europe. It was very significant, not only that he chose poland, you know, which has got that Law And Justice government, a right wing government, a very christian government that refuses to take refugees from the middle east and is being sued by the eu over that, but its very significant that he, in his speech in warsaw, did not use the word democracy once. The president today claimed that billions and billions of extra Defence Spending was now pouring into nato as a result of the pressure he put on allies. So typical transactional trump, having got what he wanted, he gave the europeans what he thought they were after. The pledge on mutual defence. Thats all very well, but it hardly builds western unity. After todays warsaw event, hamburg looked very different this evening as the president arrived for a 620 meeting. Violent protests happened pre trump, of course, but in tone and substance, the president s message is hardly healing western divisions. Im joined now by Pulitzer Prize winning historian, eric foner, and susan glasser, former Foreign PolicyEditor In Chief and the first editor of politico magazine. Susan, was it significant, do you think, or how significant was it that the word democracy did not appear at all in that speech . Significant but not a surprise. Trump doesnt use the word democracy often. Some people here were likening his speech to a european version of his american carnage and inauguration speech. That didnt also mentioned democracy. He has gone back to a Clash Of Civilisations route rather than unification. A Clash Of Civilisations, harking back to Samuel Huntingtons 1993 work where islam replaces russia as the enemy of western domination in the world. Does that tally with what you heard today . What was interesting was trump was laying out this apocalyptic vision of the world divided into the forces of light, darkness, and it gives you an insight into what you might call the intellectual origins of trumps outlook. It may seem absurd to put intellectual and trump in the same sentence, because he doesnt read books, he has no literature curiosity. But with people like steve bannon around him, this is their view of the world, that it has always been these clashes of civilisations. That our whole civilisation is under assault from either isis or radical islam, as they call it, maybe the chinese in the future rising. This is a view which isnt particularly conducive to compromise, to negotiation. Steve bannon seems to think we are living back in the age of the Crusades Where Christianity And Islam are at war. At war for the future of the world. If you look at isis, it is ridiculous, it is a small group of violent criminal people but they dont pose a threat to the us or the uk. I mean, the cold war, the existence of these countries was under threat, you know . That was from nuclear warfare. But, you know, this apocalyptic vision is not really an accurate representation of the way the world is today. Yet the rhetoric, susan, of an assault on western values, it puts bums on seats, doesnt it . What value is mighty realistically be able to persuade americans what values might he realistically be able to persuade americans are being threatened by a resurgent china, or and Expansionist Islam . It is murky. What exactly is the Clash Of Civilisations here . That is why trumps speech today is probably really unlikely to amount to much in terms of policy. I was struck by the fact that you know who it reminds me of . Vladimir putins rhetoric. You captured earlier in the programme the tension of this on the one hand critical language towards russia you havent always seen trump use, he chided them for ukraine and he suggested that they stop shoring assad. But that is different to the full throated, bombastic even common rhetorical nature of this speech. It is actually Vladimir Putin who often talks in terms very much like this. He says the number one threat russia and europe faces is from terrorism. He said that from the beginning of his tenure as russias leader. And he talks about restoring conservative values in a vague way. I think trump was unclear exactly what the Existential Threat is right now. Do you think he knows himself what the Existential Threat is . Or are you casting him in the role of Steve Bannons glove puppet . Its steve bannon, what we call the alternative right in the us. There is another forebear of trump. You didnt mention this. But in his speech he started denouncing bureaucracy. Nobody likes to defend bureaucracy, but this goes back to an obscure radical, james burnham, who wrote a book in the early 1940s, which has been picked up again in these obscure right wing website to argue that the threat today is not from a standard from the administrative state. Trump attacks what they call regulation, that kind of thing. That is a trope extreme writers are fond of using, that it is the state itself which is the danger to western freedoms. Burnham contended that communism and capitalism were essentially two sides of the same undesirable coin. What word would you employ to describe whatever alternative it is that they want to replace the old world order with . What you did not mention is that beneath this is an exclusive vision of what american civilisation or Western Civilisation is. It is fundamentally christian. It is fundamentally white. Other peoples dont have a role in it according to them. You could call it a white nationalism. That is what we often call it in the us. It is explicit now. Not in this speech but in the right wing website and call in radio. The racial element here. And the religious element is very strong. That goes all the way against the traditions of American Values of Separation Of Church And State and pluralism, and tolerance. Those are threats to our civilisation right now. They are coming from within. Susan, the meeting with Vladimir Putin tomorrow, do you speculate on what a positive outcome might be . I would caution people against thinking this is a definitive moment of confrontation when we will find out once and for alljust what is the deal between trump and putin, or even find out what our policy is. Weve just heard there is only going to be donald trump and Rex Tillerson and their translators in the meeting with sergei lavrov, the foreign minister, and President Putin himself. It is going to be an hour or less. Once you add the translation in, it amounts to a short chat between two countries. Even if they are talking, as has been reported, on Anti Terrorism moves, can you imagine any major significant arrangement being agreed to in half an hour or 40 minutes . Forgive me, i need to move on. Thank you both so much for your time this evening. Staying with trump, russia, and, indeed, ukraine, earlier today, i spoke with the Hungarian Foreign minister, peter sijarto, about being positioned both politically and geographically right in the middle of the changing political landscape. We also discussed brexit, of course, but i began by asking him about his governments perceived proximity to the kremlin and possible problems this poses for hungarian citizens in ukraine. I dont like this kind of stigmatisation. And i dont like this kind of simplification of things. We are not. It was fair to say it is a friendly relationship. No, its a pragmatic relation. We care about our national interest. And if you live in Central Europe you know that you cant afford not to talk to russia. Because its not just European Countries that are friendly towards russia. Id love to know, where do you think, from what he said since becoming president , donald trump sits on that scale . Well, you know, actually, we cross fingers for the success of donald trump. And we cross fingers for him to be able to build a balanced relationship with russia because you know, as i told you, we are living in Central Europe and we have a very clear understanding of history. Which says that whenever there was a conflict between east and west, Central Europe always lost. That is so simple. And we dont want to be losers any more. So, when we argue, or when we hope for a better relationship between the us and russia, its not because we are pro russia or pro us, its because we are pro hungarian. Did you agree with him when he said earlier today that the west is under threat . I totally agree with the position that the civilised world is under attack for us. The better the relationship between the us and russia is better for us. The worst relationship between us and russia is the worst for us. You know, we are living in Central Europe, ok . Once again. We are not living on mars. Is it fair to describe Viktor Orbans government as being one of the more eurosceptic in the European Union . No, i wouldnt say that. No . No, hungarian people, including the hungarian government, are very pro europe. But what i can tell you is the following, that we are absolutely pro european, we want strong European Union because hungary can be really strong in a strong European Union. 80 of our trade goes on with the eu countries. So we are interested in a strong European Union. But we have a serious debate with brussels, with some other member states, about how to get there. So we say that the federalist approach will not work out. So we are rather on a sovereignty path, saying that strong European Union must be based on strong member states. How does brexit look from budapest . You know, to be very honest, we regretted the decision. Why . Because its a big political and Economic Loss for the European Union, because you had a very strong voice in the debate about the future of europe. And we were on the same side. So, we will miss your voice. So this debate will now be unbalanced because the leader of one camp, or the strongest voice of one camp, falls out. In the meantime, here we have a nightmare scenario, to be very honest. If there is no deal, if there is no comprehensive economic trade and investment agreement, then we will be in big trouble in europe, because the last time we were able to implement a Free Trade Agreement was in 2011. Free trade agreement with korea. So the problem is that the eu is very slow on Free Trade Agreements. And if britain gets free hands, then you will be able to sign Free Trade Agreements with india, with turkey, with the us, with australia, with which we do not have. I mean, the European Union doesnt have Free Trade Agreements. So if this is the case, then it will harm our competitiveness, harm the competitiveness of European Union furthermore. So thats why we are pushing for a fair, i dont like this categorisation of soft and hard. Do you understand it . I like fair brexit. Do you understand the categorisation, because i dont. Ok, thats why i dont like it. You dont understand, ok, so thats a common point. Definitely. We want fair brexit, thats for sure. Balanced, fair brexit, which will end up in mutual benefits and mutual positive outcome. But we want the most comprehensive economic trade and Investment Partnership with the uk in the future. But i think that we are on the right track. So we are ready. I hope European Institutions are ready to negotiate in a, lets say, constructive manner. Because what we dont want is the following, that you look back to the time of your referendum. Then some of the reactions come on behalf of European Institutions, where, like, as those people took it as a personal insult. What you have decided. And we dont want any European Institutions to sit at the Negotiating Table as a group of insulted people. And we dont want the european negotiators or eu negotiators to play for revenge. What we want is to have a good deal at the end, a fair deal, a balanced one. Foreign minister, many thanks. Thanks a lot, i appreciate it. Earlier this evening, the Director General of the Cbi Carolyn Fairbairn warned in a lecture at the lse that Brexit Uncertainty is starting to damage the uk economy. She cited companies changing plans and slowing investment in anticipation of what she called the serious disruption that would ensue if the uk were to leave the eu without a deal. Her comments came as International Trade minister liam fox appeared to add his weight to his cabinet colleague Andrea Leadsoms recent contention that reporting unwelcome statistics about brexit was somehow unpatriotic. He claimed in the commons that some elements of the media would rather see britain fail than brexit succeed. Carolyn fairbairnjoins me now. It speaks perhaps to a difficult truth to you, which is when you describe an environment you consider less than conducive to business, you run the risk of making that environment even less conducive to business, talking the country down, if you like . One of the things that is really important to have now is a realistic debate. When we hear from firms across the country large and small about the way uncertainty is beginning to affect investment decisions, i think it is very important that we say that but also that we put ideas on the table so what were doing today is putting an idea on the table which is not about the whether of brexit, is about the how. Whether with an h. It is about a brexit that protects jobs and investment, that is wha