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Hello, I'm Sean Curran, and this is yesterday in Parliament from BBC Radio 4.

Have President Trump's recent comments about Europe, coming hard on the heels of a new US national

security strategy, left the UK in a vulnerable position. Well, that was the problem

posed to a foreign office minister on Thursday the 11th of December, as MPs shared their anger at

the new document. Almost 30 years ago, the late Roy Jenkins conjured up the image of someone carrying a priceless

Ming vase across a highly polished floor to describe the then Labour leader Tony Blair as he

approached the 1997 election. Secere Stama has demonstrated a similar level of caution as he

seeks to work with key European allies over Ukraine

while maintaining good relations with Donald Trump. The task of carrying the Ming vase across

a diplomatic tightrope was made more challenging last week when the US published its new

national security strategy.

The whole house should be under no illusion.

The United States consensus that has led the Western world since the Second World War appears shattered.

That was Labour's Matt Weston, who chairs the group of MPs and peers

who make up the Joint Committee on the UK's National Security Strategy.

He'd asked an urgent question about the US document and its suggestion that Europe was facing

a civilizational erasure and was to blame for blocking American efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine.

But Matt Weston thought something was missing.

The absence of condemnation for Russia is extraordinary, though not surprising. Given certain UK

dependencies on the United States, this leaves the United Kingdom especially vulnerable.

Matt Weston said he didn't expect the government to publicly condemn

...