BRUSSELS

European Council President Antonio Costa stressed Tuesday that allies should respect each other's democratic processes and refrain from intervening in domestic politics in response to US President Donald Trump's sharp critiques of European political leadership.

"Allies must act as allies. That means that we should not interfere in the political internal life of our countries. We respect the choice of Americans, and they need to respect the democratic choice of our citizens," Costa said at the news conference in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.

"When all the leaders elect me President of the European Council, President Trump must respect this as respect that the American citizens elected him President of the United States -- like this that allies behave between each other," he added.

Trump described Europe in an interview with Politico on Tuesday as facing significant strain and said its leaders had not done enough to manage major challenges.

"I think they’re weak," said the US leader. "I also think that they want to be so politically correct. I think they don’t know what to do. Europe doesn’t know what to do."

Martin rejected comments by Trump portraying Europe as weak. "It depends on how one defines strength. Europe is one of the strongest continents in the world in terms of economic strength. Actually, that's manifested in the EU-US trade agreement, inherently in that agreement as a recognition of strength of Europe economically," he said.

Turning to EU efforts to secure long-term financial support for Ukraine, Costa insisted that Europe has been Kyiv's main supporter since the first day of the war and will continue backing the country "in war times and in peace times."

"We are strong enough to support Ukraine, and when others have doubts if what they should continue to support Ukraine, or they want to give up in Ukraine, we still, and we keep with our unwavering support to Ukraine. We will not do in Ukraine what others have done in Afghanistan. We will remain supporting Ukraine," he said.

He said EU institutions and member states are working on final legal and technical arrangements to guarantee Ukraine's funding for 2026 and 2027, adding that he is confident a decision will be made at the upcoming EU leaders meeting in Brussels from Dec. 18 -19.