While the fight to cope with the lethal effects of COVID-19 on people and the economy is continuing around the world, another kind of fight is also raging, for geo-political predominance between the world’s foremost powers. In this fight of the titans, the ‘little guys’ are paying the price, be it the individuals that suffer…
I’m leaving Europe for the summer to explore Russia, Mongolia and China.
This year’s summit of the G20 took place from 4 to 5 September in Hangzhou, China. The agenda once again went beyond the classical economic issues of growth, trade and investment, and covered climate change, the 2030 Agenda or Sustainable Development, Brexit and even terrorism and health issues. These summits are gradually turning into sessions of some kind of a Global Economic Security Council, if not of a Global Directorate bringing together the most important established and emerging world powers. Should the G20 remain a stage for those preferring the freedom of ad hoc actions than global multilateral scrutiny, or should it be integrated into the more legitimate UN structures, revitalizing them at the same time?
GOD BLESS THE CHINESE
By Cristina Dias Neves.
While European stock traders were trembling all week at the dreadful news that their assets in China were shrinking at a very fast pace, my worries about China were much more trivial.
Written in conjunction with Jovana Savic
Somewhat obscured for the European public by simultaneous other urgent issues, the 17th EU-China summit took place in Brussels on 29 June 2015. It was chaired by the Presidents of the European Council and the Commission—Messrs, Tusk and Juncker, respectively—and the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, marking forty years of bilateral cooperation and diplomatic relations.
By Mario Saavedra
At different times in history it has been Athens, Venice and Milan. Today it’s São Paulo, Shanghai, Istanbul and Barcelona: large cities that sign international diplomatic agreements directly with other governments, either local or national, without necessarily going through their capital city. Mayors or governors have thus become the new diplomats.
Talks between the “six powers” (US, Russia, China, UK, France, Germany plus the EU) and Iran successfully concluded in Lausanne, Switzerland with agreement on key parameters to draft a of a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to be drafted by 30 June 2015. Joint Statement by EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad…
The EU central institutions seem to be stuck to what 19th Century Europe identified as “mission civilisatrice”, fuelled by an underlying sense of self-righteousness and superiority vis-à-vis others, while individual member states continue to pursue their narrow but concrete geopolitical and economic interests, which go in different directions. It should come as no surprise that EU members are steadily losing ground on the charts of state power and influence in the world, overtaken by more dynamic, emerging powers. Of course, with its ambition, innovation and flexibility the US remains steadily at the top, as would the EU as a whole, should it become really united.
