Trade wars, Russian election tampering and the nerve gas attack in Salisbury plus that little matter of Brexit. Those are the hot topics coming up at the EU Council meeting starting Thursday. Ahead of the gathering of 28 EU heads of state and government in Brussels, CGTN's Mariam Zaidi sat down with the former Danish prime minister and former NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

MARIAM ZAIDI BRUSSELS "Let's come to the specific issue of alleged Russian meddling in elections."

ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN FORMER NATO SECRETARY GENERAL "From now until the US Presidential elections in 2020, we will have 20 national elections in EU and NATO countries. I think Russia will try to interfere with all those elections, at least in strategic important countries."

MARIAM ZAIDI BRUSSELS "The UK and Russia are of course embroiled in a spat right now over the poisoning of a Russian double agent in the UK. Do you think the UK is taking the right approach with Russia? Obviously Theresa May, she now wants to enforce stronger sanctions against Russia, more targeted sanctions against Russia."

ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN FORMER NATO SECRETARY GENERAL "Anything short of full solidarity would be considered a victory in the Kremlin. And this solidarity should just not be words and statements, but also concrete actions. My experience with President Putin is that he needs to be confronted. Firmly and united. For instance, if we hadn't done anything, he could have easily have taken Eastern Ukraine as he did with Crimea. He illegally annexed Crimea into the Russian Federation."

MARIAM ZAIDI BRUSSELS "In this new world order of trade wars, emperors and despots. So where is the EU's place in all of this and can it be a big player on the global stage especially when it's losing one of its biggest member states, the UK?"

ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN FORMER NATO SECRETARY GENERAL "That's the problem. Brexit is a disaster. For the UK as well as the EU. For the EU it will be really a challenge to keep what I would call a global perspective. So the EU should first of all, get its act together. The EU and US should strengthen Transatlantic bond. I'm strongly against this trade war so I do hope that the EU will be exempt from the US measures. And based on that, we should reach out to the world's democracies."

MARIAM ZAIDI BRUSSELS: "Ok, let's hope that can happen. Thanks so much Mr Rasmussen. Pleasure to have you with us."