Today in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Vice Presidents of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis will meet at the US-EU Trade and Technology Summit. The meeting will not be easy, because recently relations between the United States and the European Union have taken off in earnest. The economy reminds you of the Euro-Atlantic alliance.
Europe coped with the matter calmly, especially France, which lost the “decade of the century” to build submarines for Australia for 40 billion dollars. Moreover, the United States promised to sell Australian nuclear-powered units. This illustrates how the code-breaking country has become a reliable partner for Washington. Although perhaps in the face of changes in the world, this last word will cease to be used as a synonym for Australia.
– There is a contradiction in how Americans treat Europe and individual European countries. They are trying to convince them that they are focused on the European Union. We have a president who knows Europe and a foreign minister who speaks French. However, the center of gravity in US politics is shifting towards Asia. How to do this is shown in the lesson we are just learning. America speaks warmly of Europe, but by its actions it shows that there are more important allies — says Mishaw Baranowski, senior fellow and director in the Warsaw office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. – Australia turned out to be more important than France, where leaving Afghanistan turned out to be more important than the interests of the allies, in the case of Nord Stream 2, interests with Germany turned out to be more important than those of Central Europe.
According to Janusz Reiter, Chairman of the Board of the Center for International Relations, many people in Europe today feel the real danger of depriving it of strategic importance. A new world is born in a place where Europe is either unwilling or unable to participate, and cards are distributed there without their participation.
Nowak, head of the University of Vistula Group, points out that Eurocentrism hinders the correct interpretation of Americans’ actions.
– When I moved to Washington during the financial crisis 10 years ago, I realized that the discussion about the euro was off the agenda – he recalls. In Europe, no one realized that resetting relations with Russia under Obama was necessary for America to be able to turn to Asia. An exit from Afghanistan is needed by the United States to better deal with it.
When Biden began to rule and said that America was back, he believed in Europe that it would return to the old continent. And suddenly that wasn’t quite what he intended. He began analyzing how much Biden Trump had. However, he would not have done otherwise, the historical shift is taking place, and it does not matter whether the head of the United States is a populist rather than an entirely serious politician, or an experienced, responsible and well-known European like Biden. The United States sees China as its strategic competitor in the twenty-first century, as assessed by Mishaw Kubusko, head of Poland 2050, Simon Hugoonia. – If I were in Paris now, I would be afraid to speak English.
France was really surprised. The decision was ultimately made by Australia, of course in cooperation with the United States. Remember, however, that the USA and the EU have the largest investment relationship in the world. And it still exists — says Tony Hoch, chairman of the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland (AmCham).
TTIP
Bartomig e Nowak points out that the primary test for US policy has been to withdraw from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and conclude a trade agreement with China. As a result, the European Union has concluded trade agreements with more than 30 partners and not with its strategic ally.
According to Tony Hoch, TTIP killed interest groups in the United States and Europe, and there was a lot of fake news about the treaty. Everyone wanted more trade, more jobs, the same standards on both sides of the ocean, but when the TIPP logo appeared, everyone moved away from this idea – he remembers the events of the middle of the last decade. We will not return to such a broad agreement in the near future, but when it comes to business, especially small and medium-sized businesses, many of the chapters that have been negotiated can be implemented. The main areas of cooperation are energy, new technologies and cloud computing.
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three sailors
It may be interesting to see how the new US administration continues its association with the idea of the Three Seas, with the strong support of Donald Trump.
– The White House governors support the Three Seas Initiative, but without much enthusiasm – says Michai Baranovsky. It is not included in a larger foreign policy strategy. The project promoted by Poland has had significant political dynamics as long as the Trump administration has been interested in it. It seems hard to maintain, but let’s remember that this Biden administration is still taking shape.
The interest of the United States can be revitalized by deepening economic relations between Poland and China. Here our country has not said the last word yet.
The Three Seas Initiative was an idea for a policy without Germany and France. The Germans and the French knew about it, but did nothing major. We should go back to the game with a game plan, but we don’t have one – Janusch Reiter comments.
According to Michai Kubusko, there was too much ideology, politics and a dream to return to Intermarium, and there was not enough economy in the previous formula of the Three Seas Initiative. After the ideology was drained, it became a necessary and future-proof project. In Central and Eastern Europe, what happened in Western Europe – the interconnectedness of infrastructures – did not happen. The Three Seas provides such an opportunity.
Nowak, in the opinion of Bartomieg E. Novak, our country is now in a very difficult situation. He can restore relations in the Weimar Triangle, but this will not happen until he solves the problems of the rule of law and democracy, and most importantly, he returns from behind the red line that represents human rights abuses. Europe will never agree to this.
Poland and the Three Seas must consider how they want to become part of the new normal. The opportunity for global change appears once in every generation. America will continue to invest in this region. I’m optimistic about next year, concludes Tony Hoch.
The quotes are from the panel “USA, EU and Poland – is it a new opening?” employment European Economic Conference. The session was moderated by Magorzata Bunikowska, President of the Center for International Relations.
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