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bne March 2020 Cover story I 27
Kremlin sops in their public remarks. Both have mentioned the creation of a common market that stretches “from Lisbon to Vladivostok” which is a central goal of Putin’s long-term foreign policy.
Macron, who faces re-election in 2022, also softened his accusations of Russian election interference by pointing out that Russia is not alone in interfering with elections. He said "conservative actors from America's ultra-right"
had sought to interfere in European elections and the French president urged European intelligence agencies to cooperate more closely to prevent this. The US was famously caught tapping Merkel’s private mobile phone for years in 2015 for which it never apologised. Moreover, when a commission was set up in Germany to investigate, the US was caught again placing spies on the committee.
Westlessness
Europe’s move towards Russia is also part of a broader attempt to move out from under the US security umbrella that has been a feature of geopolitics since the start of the Cold War, as bne IntelliNews reported in an op-ed, “The end of the post WWII world order”,
in August 2018.
Ahead of the conference's opening,
its organisers released a report titled "Westlessness" – which they called "an uneasiness and restlessness in the face of increasing uncertainty about the enduring purpose of the West".
“For those defending the long dominant liberal definition of the West, in contrast, it is precisely the
rise of illiberalism and the return of nationalism that put the West at risk,” the report says before going on to cite illiberal quotes from Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Putin, who famously told the Financial Times that “liberalism is obsolete“ in an interview in June 2019.
The report paints a very gloomy picture of the world and argues that the West has more or less lost control of the situation, while the emerging market
powers have simply ignored the rest of the international community and are increasingly acting on their own initiative.
“The events of recent months have only underlined the fact that Western countries, by now, seem to have
largely ceded the initiative to deal with today’s most violent conflicts to others. And while Western politicians keep repeating the mantra that there are no military solutions to political conflicts, other actors are implementing them, with no concern for legal or ethical considerations,” the Westlessness report says.
This trend had already begun before Trump’s election, but the unpredictability and aggressive foreign policies of the Trump administration are catalysing the change. Germany’s new Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has openly called the US an “unreliable partner”, and ironically Merkel meets with Putin
Macron has openly called for an EU standing army to represent European interests in global security incidents, which would compete with Nato forces that currently exclusively play this role. The clause in the UN charter that would allow for a UN standing force has never been acted on. France has also annoyed Nato by refusing to make its nuclear weapons available to Nato. After Brexit France is now the EU's only country armed with nuclear weapons. Everyone else relies entirely on the US nuclear deterrent. Referring to France’s nuclear weapons, Macron said: "We cannot always go through the United States, no, we have to think in a European
way as well."
German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told conference delegates that the West and its ideals were being challenged and that Europe, and Germany, "have a duty to become more able and more willing to act," she said. "We're still not doing enough."
“Western countries, by now, seem to have largely ceded the initiative to deal with today’s most violent conflicts to others”
more often to try and solve the world’s problems than she does with Trump. Indeed, after meeting him face-to-face for the first time in 2018 the visibly shocked chancellor said in a speech immediately afterwards: “It's time for Europe to stand on its own two feet.”
The EU has found itself in an awkward alliance with Russia in its opposition
to the US decision to unilaterally re-impose sanctions on Iran, despite Tehran’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal signed with the Obama administration. The EU and Russia
have created a barter-based special purpose vehicle (SPV) to allow European businesses to continue to work with Iran but at the same time avoid US sanctions being imposed as a punishment by Washington.
For Putin these disagreements are
a boon as not only is the trans-Atlantic alliance weakening, the EU itself has become increasingly factitious. Many EU countries, especially in Southeast Europe where new Russian gas pipelines are being built, are openly supportive
of Russia, although none have yet broken ranks to veto sanctions on Russia, which must be universally renewed every six months.
The US is not happy with the attempt
to downgrade the role of Nato, which
is dominated by the US, and has been attempting to bully Europe into following its foreign policy line by also threatening to sanction European firms and banks that go against US sanction policies.
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo led the US delegation in Munich and
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