‘Surrounded by sharks’: Europe tries to keep afloat amid pressures from China and US

As the EU faces opposing geopolitical forces at play, the former Lithuanian foreign minister says it is time to toughen up

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Former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has warned the EU that, amid the shifting geopolitical landscape, it must learn to “swim and survive”. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:00pm, 1 Feb 2025

Europe needs to learn how to “swim and survive” in a new era in which it is “surrounded by sharks” as it faces pressure from China and Trump’s US, according to Gabrielius Landsbergis, who was until December the Lithuanian foreign minister.

Landsbergis said the European Union was “clinging to a position that we are not an actor”, while China and the United States were “creating their own ways of how to conduct business with each other”. In response to the tectonic shift in geopolitics, he urged Brussels to toughen up.

“If you’re in the middle of the sea, surrounded by sharks and screaming ‘human rights’, I don’t think that you’re going to convince somebody with your values-based approach,” the conservative politician said.

“I’m not suggesting that we have to be sharks, but I’m suggesting that we have to figure out the way that would actually allow us to swim and survive.”

The return of Donald Trump as US president has threatened to upend the EU’s relationship with Washington. Much ink has been spilled about how the returning leader might also affect Europe’s strained ties with Beijing, with the EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic saying on Wednesday that Brussels hoped to work with Trump on some facets of China policy.

“History has not yet been written,” Landsbergis said. “The geopolitical situation is changing quite rapidly.”