Home>>World
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, May 24, 2002

Bush's European Trip Faces Difficulties: Commentary

US President George W. Bush recently paid visits to Germany, Russia and France, with his journey covering places of Berlin, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Paris. It is the opinion of the West that from the welcoming banquets given by German and French leaders to the negotiation table of the US-Russian summit and the NATO summit to be held in Rome at the end of this month, the United States will face such a Europe: Although official contacts with the United States are close and frequent, people in this region will be more dissatisfied with American policies.


PRINT DISCUSSION CHINESE SEND TO FRIEND


US President George W. Bush recently paid visits to Germany, Russia and France, with his journey covering places of Berlin, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Paris. It is the opinion of the West that from the welcoming banquets given by German and French leaders to the negotiation table of the US-Russian summit and the NATO summit to be held in Rome at the end of this month, the United States will face such a Europe: Although official contacts with the United States are close and frequent, people in this region will be more dissatisfied with American policies.

Europe obviously has doubts and misgivings about the US strategic intention. While reporting to the federal parliament, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who was recently back from the United States, pointed out: The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) will become unimportant. In Fischer's opinion, today, 12 years after the conclusion of the Cold War, the Americans no longer regard NATO as something important, Washington's "anti-Europe sentiment has spread everywhere.

What disturbs Germany and other European countries is also the concept called "Big Suspended Trail Bridge". This "bridge" refers to the area starting from the present sole superpower, the United States across Europe, to the previous superpower the Soviet Union (Russia), and then extending to India and China. This has stricken fear into the hearts of the Europeans: If Europe fails to achieve political unity and enhance their own military strength, then it will possibly be elbowed out by the American new-century strategy to the edge of world politics.

It is the view of European statesmen that taking the stagnant items of European army group for example, there can hardly be progress in Europe's independent security and defense plans due to Washington's repeated obstructions, the root cause lies in US hard-liners' worries about the growth of European forces. As early as February last year, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld openly opposed the tentative plan for establishing a European army group, claiming that this would threaten the effective existence of the NATO in Europe and would undermine the stability of the NATO alliance, disrupt the international relationship in the Atlantic region. US Ambassador Burns to the NATO put it more bluntly that the NATO is no longer a "tool kit" to be taken at will by the Europeans.

Currently, most EU nations share the same view about this, the Bush administration tries intentionally to destroy this union, at least it tries to belittle it as "a force that can be neglected". EU diplomats hold that the United States will let this Union "expand without limits" through encouraging "eastward expansions", until it loses its original nature of "collective self-defense". At the same time, Washington, under the international "anti-terrorism" banner, asserts "extending our influence to the Central Asian region is in the greatest interests of the United States."

The United States "stubbornly sticks to its national interests, while it forces other countries to act according to its own will, it refuses to perform its obligations that may likely limit its own freedom of action," perhaps this complaint of European Commissioner for External Relations Christopher Pattern about the United States is the most suitable portrayal of the US acts of unilateralism.



By People's Daily Online


Questions?Comments? Click here
    Advanced






Bush Arrives in Moscow for New Arms Deal

Bush Starts Visit to Germany

US President Stresses Need to Fight Global Terror





 


Many Hurdles for Free Trade between Mainland and HK ( 11 Messages)

Hong Kong to Extend Native-speaking English Teacher Scheme to Primary Schools ( 3 Messages)

UNDP Starts Research on Chinese Women in WTO ( 34 Messages)

Foreign Carmakers Seek More Presence in China ( 13 Messages)

Philippines Engages in Expansions in China's Nansha ( 70 Messages)



Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved