German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called on Wednesday for Europe to reshape its relationship with the United States, saying the two sides had been drifting apart even before Donald Trump’s presidency and urging the EU to play a bigger global role, Politico reported.

“The fact that distance between the two sides of the Atlantic has become politically wider is by no means solely due to Donald Trump,” Maas wrote in an opinion piece published by German business daily Handelsblatt on Wednesday.

“The U.S. and Europe have been drifting apart for years. The overlapping of values and interests that has shaped our relationship for two generations is decreasing.”

To “renew and preserve” the historic relationship, Germany, alongside France and its European partners, should seek a “balanced partnership” with Washington in which they “form a counterweight where the U.S. crosses red lines” and advance “where America retreats,” according to Maas.

Maas also defended Europe’s efforts to legally protect its companies from U.S. sanctions linked to Iran. “It is of strategic importance that we say clearly to Washington: We want to work together. But we will not allow you to act over our heads at our expense,” he wrote