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Opinion | Nato and China summits give Europe a chance to assert its interests and stabilise the global order
Vasilis Trigkas says back-to-back summits with the current and rising hegemon give the EU a chance to take the initiative in providing for its own security and securing a trade deal with Beijing, which may bolster a WTO-led order threatened by Trump
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July 2018 could be a consequential month for global geopolitics. On July 11, Nato allies will gather in Brussels to discuss the future of the free world amid United States retrenchment and US President Donald Trump’s polemics against the alliance and the “freeriding” Europeans.
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Then, on July 15, European Union leaders will head to Beijing to attend the 20th China-EU summit with the global commercial order at stake. For the first time since its geopolitical suicide in the first world war, Europe has a chance to exercise fine diplomacy on a grand scale, soundly protect its interests and preserve the institutions that have kept the world safe and prosperous.
Unlike the monotony of usual Nato summits, this one will be “predictably unpredictable” due to the mercurial character of the big elephant in the room: Trump. For the past year, following up on his electoral campaign rhetoric, Trump has repeatedly accused the Europeans of failing to share the security bill; meaning, to procure expensive arms from the bloated American military-industrial complex.
Trump has defied Washington's foreign policy establishment and even questioned the benefit of Nato to the US national interest. Never mind that Nato has always done an impeccable job in keeping “America in, Russia out and Germany down”. Just recently, at the eventful G7 summit in Canada, Trump put Nato next to Nafta as two treaties he is sceptical about and which need to be revised or abandoned.
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