Actually, the EU and the USA want to coordinate their China policy.
But shortly before the announcement of the new EU strategy, the US made a surprising pact in the Indo-Pacific - bypassing the Europeans.
Brussels / Beijing / Munich - A submarine deal in the Indo-Pacific dominates the environment of the UN General Assembly in New York. The Europeans railed against the USA, Great Britain and Australia earlier this week. Because the three of them had decided on a security pact with the strange abbreviation AUKUS - past Brussels. And just hours later, Australia had canceled a multi-billion dollar submarine contract with France - it is now receiving nuclear submarines from its new partners, the USA and Great Britain.
"What we see there has made a lot more difficult," criticized Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Tuesday in New York. He feared that it would remain difficult for a while. The EU and the foreign ministers of the member states gave France their backing in New York. "One of our member states was treated in a way that is not acceptable," said EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to the US broadcaster
CNN.
"So we want to know what happened and why."
It pretty much all happened at the same time.
On Thursday, the EU presented its long-awaited strategy for the Indo-Pacific: Brussels wants to increase its presence there, including with naval ships.
But at the press conference that followed, everyone only asked about AUKUS.
The tripartite pact had become known hours earlier - including the submarine deal.
"We were not consulted," said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell at the press conference.
Paris and Brussels were caught cold.
Europe and other western states share concerns about the increasing power expansion of China * in the Indo-Pacific.
But instead of the participating states reacting to this together, two competing initiatives are suddenly launched.
In practice, the much-invoked transatlantic cooperation in geopolitics does not seem to be far off.
The US going it alone in Asia showed the Europeans once again that Washington's priorities are no longer in Brussels.
Conversely, Europe's greatest concern is currently not about the confrontation with China, as diplomats and politicians have repeatedly emphasized - but trouble spots near Europe that are increasingly disappearing from the focus of the USA.
EU: Finding the right China policy in the Indo-Pacific
The EU therefore also wants to involve China. The new document on the Indo-Pacific Strategy warns that regional tensions “could have a direct impact on the security and prosperity of Europe”, but at the same time calls for “diverse engagement” with China. The EU wants to expand its influence in the Indo-Pacific, including in areas such as infrastructure, trade, data, and climate and ocean protection. There are to be pilot projects for digital cooperation with Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Josep Borrell emphasized that the strategy should not be understood as a confrontation with China.
Beijing's only real challenge is that the EU * also wants to be militarily active - for example to secure the shipping connection through the South China Sea.
To this end, the new strategy provides for the presence of naval ships and “more joint military exercises” with the allies in the region.
However, the fact that the EU is now seeking trade and investment agreements with Taiwan * - as well as with Indonesia, New Zealand, India - and actually Australia should also cause displeasure in Beijing.
EU, France and AUKUS: France has long-term colds
But the planned trade agreement between the EU and Australia is likely to end up in the icebox for now. "It is unthinkable to press ahead with trade negotiations as if nothing had happened - with a country we no longer trust," said Clément Beaune, France's secretary for European affairs, of the US news website
Politico
. France had already called back its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington last week - a rather drastic gesture among allies.
The submarine deal is also a burden on the future of NATO, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on the French radio at the weekend. Just one day before the AUKUS pact became known, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in her annual State of the Union address that the EU was working on a joint declaration with NATO. At the last summit, the alliance made its first statement on China and the Indo-Pacific - at the urging of US President Joe Biden *, mind you.
Most of all, the EU suffered this memorable week.
The US's struggle with China for supremacy in the Indo-Pacific is ultimately a purely American concern, as it turns out - because the EU is far from having a real role in the region.
Washington is engaged in power politics there - and then simply pushes an ally like France aside under Biden.
And only two days before Germany was duped by China: Beijing refused a visit to Shanghai by the frigate Bavaria *, which is currently on its way to Asia.
In addition, there was a rebuke from Tokyo: Japan's Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi called on the Europeans in an interview with the British
Guardian
to finally position themselves more strongly against China's urge to expand and rearmament.
+
American nuclear submarine USS Oklahoma City at the US naval base in Guam: Submarine deal with Australia causes dispute with Europe
© Mc3 Naomi Johnson / US Navy Office of Information via AP / dpa
China: laughing third in the AUKUS dispute?
The neighbors fear China - and at the same time Beijing feels encircled.
There you understand, according to a comment in the state newspaper
Global Times
very precisely that AUKUS is directed against China. Japan's Navy has also just held a major maneuver off the Chinese coast; Taiwan is also arming with US aid *. Now Australia is added, which is not accessible to the vast majority of Chinese missiles. AUKUS seriously undermines regional peace and stability and promotes the arms race, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. "What the US and Australia are pushing for is wars and destruction." Australia and China have been in a bitter trade dispute since early 2020. Beijing imposed punitive tariffs on a number of Australian exports after Canberra introduced stricter scrutiny of overseas investments and called for an independent investigation into the origins of Covid-19.
The AUKUS pact therefore also shows how China's sometimes aggressive foreign policy can backfire, says Christian Le Maire, founder of the strategy consultancy Arcipel.
"Now China will have to contend not only with US, British and French nuclear submarines in its backyard, but also with Australian ones," wrote Le Maire in the
South China Morning Post
.
EU: Lots of new plans in China policy
Nevertheless, China could at least temporarily be the laughing third party: The West is arguing - without any action from Beijing.
Chinese foreign politicians have been campaigning in Europe for an independent course for the EU for months.
The hope is that Brussels will now think twice about how closely it is cooperating with Washington in the Indo-Pacific.
However, this could be deceptive.
Because the EU is partially approaching US China policy.
In her speech last week, von der Leyen announced a ban on products made from forced labor.
This is primarily directed against China, which is said to use members of the Muslim Uighur minority in the northwest region of Xinjiang for forced labor * in the cotton industry, for example.
Trade should "never take place at the expense of human dignity and freedom," said the EU Commission chief.
The US is already banning the import of some products from Xinjiang, including cotton, photovoltaics and tomatoes.
USA: Its foreign policy increasingly focuses on China and Asia
That all sounds good. But the AUKUS deal is still a shock. The EU and its member states are apparently no “credible security partners” for the USA and Australia,
Politico
quoted
an unnamed EU diplomat as
saying
. The increasing shift in Washington's attention to the Indo-Pacific as demonstrated by AUKUS "indicates a weakening of the importance of Europe-based alliance systems such as NATO," says Le Maire. There is also another question mark behind the EU's China policy: the federal election in Germany * could bring politicians who are more critical of China to the government.
Meanwhile, France did not hesitate long. On Tuesday, the country agreed to work with India in the Indo-Pacific *. President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed on it in a phone call, said the Elysée Palace. France wants to help "strengthen the strategic autonomy of India". Here, too, it is clear that China is the elephant in the room. What remains is the question of how the allies can find their way back to the table after the submarine dispute.
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