Page 28 - BNE_magazine_03_2020 wellness

28 I Cover story bne March 2020
gave a speech that contained the word “winning” half a dozen times, echoing Trump’s famous quote about “so much winning”. Pompeo rejected German criticism of the US retreat from the global stage and promised $1bn of investments for European energy as
a sweetener.
“I’m happy to report that the death of the Transatlantic alliance is grossly exaggerated. The West is winning, we are collectively winning and we’re doing it together,” Pompeo said at the Munich Security Conference, making a veiled swipe at Macron’s famous “brain death” of Nato remarks.
Moreover, Pompeo defended the US' leading role in the world after Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg touted US-EU relations in his address at the conference.
"Any attempt to distance Europe from North America not only weakens the trans-Atlantic bond, but it also risks dividing Europe," Pompeo said. "I don't believe in Europe alone. I believe in Europe and America together."
Following Pompeo's remarks Macron countered with a much more pessimistic view that contradicted the US position. Europe is “becoming a continent that
doesn’t believe in its future,” he said. “There is indeed a weakening of the West. 15 years ago, we thought our values were universal values, they will always rule the world, and we are dominant in terms of military technology and so on,” highlighting the rise of China and Russia in the last decade, neither of which subscribe to the western liberal values agenda.
Macron called for an end to conflict with China and Russia, as a “second choice” to the current showdown, “because today we talk less and less, conflicts multiply and we aren't able to resolve them.”
In what was a diplomatic slap in the
face for the US, the French president said that Europe should cease being
“the United States' junior partner”. Europeans are slated to remain part of Nato, but nothing should stop them from being “sovereign, united and democratic and [acting] as such” in the coming decade.
What Europeans worry about is an escalation of tensions between the US and its rivals for geopolitical power China and Russia, a fear that Germany's current president and former foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, voiced explicitly, suggesting that Russia and China, along with the US, were stoking global instability and warned of the danger that the three were slipping into a new "great power" competition and nuclear arms race.
"And our closest ally, the United
States of America, under the present administration itself, rejects the idea of an international community," Steinmeier said. "'Great again' – even at the expense of neighbours and partners," Steinmeier added, taking a swipe at Trump’s campaign slogan: Make America
Great Again.
And those fears are shared by the people of Europe who do not support the US and will not participate in a war lead by the US against either Russia or China. The overwhelming sentiment is that Europe should remain neutral if it comes to blows between Washington, Beijing and Moscow.
With whom should Europe side if there was an armed conflict between the US and Russia? Opinion poll, 2019, percent
4
100%
85
53
Side with US
Side with Russia
Remain neutral
Do not know
6
28
4
12
4
76
18
6
63
12
7
70
13
6
71
17
9
65
33
6
45
14
16
13
5
11
10
8
9
Austria Denmark Finland France Germany Hungary Italy Poland Source: European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
With whom should Europe side if there was an armed conflict between the US and China? Opinion poll, 2019, percent
Side with US
Side with China
Remain neutral
Do not know
4
100%
38 80
6
86
4
20
6
59
15
9
18
5
64
13
10
6
73
11
13
5
73
10
20
7
63
10
24
6
54
16
Austria Denmark Finland France Germany Hungary Italy Poland Source: European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
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