This week, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited China to discuss various important political issues with the Chinese leadership.
During an interview with Sputnik, Tiberio Graziani said Baerbock’s visit essentially “reaffirmed” the weakness of the EU.
“Baerbock expressed an ideological point of view, in line with Biden and Sunak, contradicting the practice of economic-commercial ties that Berlin maintains with Beijing,” he explained.
Graziani also shared his thoughts on Baerbock’s remarks about the situation in the Taiwan Strait, as she claimed during her visit that Germany and the European Union cannot remain indifferent to the escalating tensions in that region.
Noting how Macron was able to understand “China's position in the context of a rebalancing of the world order” and attempted to open “the path of concrete diplomacy” during his visit to Beijing, Graziani lamented that Baerbock and EC President Ursula von der Leyen “still follow the Western mantra that China destabilizes the Indo-Pacific.”
“Pragmatism and diplomacy, that is the French recipe (at least in intention), seem to be the most rational way to avert a potential escalation,” Graziani remarked.
When asked what the EU should do in the current situation, where the US Inflation Reduction Act puts Europe-based companies at a disadvantage and Washington prevents Europe from developing further economic cooperation with China, Graziani suggested that the EU should consider the opinion of its members.
“The European Union - if it wants to remain a unitary subject - will have to take into account the new position of France and that of other countries, such as Hungary, for example, above all it will have to take into account the national and economic interests of Western Europe,” he elaborated.
Meanwhile, Come Carpentier de Gourdon, convener of the editorial board of the journal World Affairs, suggested that Baerbock did not approve of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to China last year and that she “reaffirmed the EU’s loyalty to the US after Macron’s disruptive comments.”
“The Chinese expected this from her and simply warned her not to politicize business. They showed studied indifference to her statements about, Taiwan which echoed the US position,” he told Sputnik.
De Gourdon also speculated that the EU may “gradually break up, de facto, if not officially,” on issues such as Taiwan, and that internal divisions in the European Union may increase.