The 10th Summit between China and the European Union (EU) was held on November 28, the 8th EU-India Summit took place on Nov. 30, and leaders from the 27-nation EU and from 53 African nations met in Lisbon for a second, two-day summit on December 8th-9th. So, people could not but feel that there was not a moment's leisure in such intensified diplomatic maneuvering.
The three summit meetings have been so close to one another chronologically, and it should be said that his is some sort of coincidence. In principle, EU leaders have had annual meetings respectively with its six partners, namely, the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India and Canada; the second EU-African Union (AU) summit, which could have been held in 2003, was postponed time and again because of some Western nations' dissatisfaction with the land reform of Zimbabwe.
It is not so difficult for people to see the active diplomatic postures or moves of EU from its intensive summit and a series of latest moves taken by EU on the Iranian nuclear issue, the Middle East issue and other hot spot issues.
Such incessant diplomatic moves are necessitated by the self positioning of EU. As a union of 27-member nations with a total population of more than 500 million, EU needs to set up its own image on the international arena and seek its diplomatic position to match its own strength. The EU has become increasingly active ever since it launched its joint action in diplomacy in 1999. It has partaken in such global hot-spot issues as the Iranian nuclear enrichment program, the Middle East issue, the Kosovo issue, the Darfur issue, and the shadowy silhouette of its representatives has appeared in numerous hot-spot regions.
Meanwhile, with a continuous increase in its power, EU also has raised new claims or desires of its own. And United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has also placed his high hope on it with regard to the Kosovo issue.
Of course, the "America factor" has injected vigor and enthusiasm into the active diplomacy of EU. The United States knows very clearly that its strength alone is not enough to deal with such tough issues as the Iranian nuclear issue and the Palestine-Israel conflict, but needs a helping hand from its allies on the other side of the Atlantic.
A question of growing global interest is that officials from Washington, D.C. have flocked to visit Brussels, capital city of Belgium recently and quite often to sojourn at the EU headquarters. EU, therefore, has set forth proposals on climate change, imposed pressures upon Renminbi for its appreciation in line with the Doha round of talks, and jointly appealed to the developing nations to open up their markets. Examples like this are plenty.
Undoubtedly, the fundamental interest of the EU itself lies behind its serial diplomatic maneuverings. EU hopes to cut a deficit in its trade with China and increase its market access via the China-EU summit and, through the way of holding its summit with India, steps up its free trade ties with India and finds a way out for numerous European firms and, by means of the EU/AU summit, it beefs up cooperation with its EU/AU organizations and goes on exporting the "EU model".
Furthermore, it takes on a momentum to export its "soft power" by working hard to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis, dispatching troops to Darfur region and striving to maneuver in the Middle East issue.
Overall, EU effort has so far achieved little on the Iranian nuclear issue, scored no major progress on the Middle East Issue, and the security and stability situation in the Congo (Kin) and Sudan and other places remains a question despite money and forces it has dispatched there.
Facing the incoming 2008, EU is to usher in a new "diplomatic test" and, it will be first to come across the issue of Kosovo; it represents an extremely severe test in coordinating the stances of itself and those of Serbia & Montenegro, the U.S., Russia and the United Nations. Its active pace will not halt on the global diplomatic arena even if it fails to hand in its "satisfactory test paper".
By People's Daily Online and its author is ace desk editor Zhang Niansheng.
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