Browsing through the foreign news section of The Maltese Herald, the individual that undoubtedly features more than anyone else is President Donald Trump. Despite being pro-European with a strong bias in favour of the EU and Europe, there is nothing escaping the fact that President Trump has dominated global politics and has taken the lead in international affairs. Europe has taken the back-seat.
President Trump has unilaterally dictated the US-EU trade deal, forced Israel and Hamas to accept a ceasefire and proposed a peace plan for Gaza, and China has recently capitulated to President Trump following his 57% tariffs on Chinese products to the US; a tariff which effectively forced the Chinese manufacturing industry into a crisis. President Trump also holds a significant influence on what happens in the battlefield in Ukraine and his decisions will eventually influence the course of the Russian war in Ukraine.
President Trump doesn’t necessarily follow through with his very big decisions but he is clearly more decisive and effective with less effort than European leaders who have so far been reluctant to take very big decisions. The US sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft is just one example of how President Trump is ready to go all the way while Europe cowers in fear.
European and EU leaders say the right things at the right time but in terms of execution they do only the very minimum. Europe provides only the minimum amount of weapons to Ukraine to defend itself, but not to win the war. On sanctions, Europe contemplates on restricting the imports of Russian toilets instead of declaring an effective and total blockage of Russian oil in European waters. On Gaza, Europe decided to take the back-seat completely. Now, Europe risks repeating the same mistake again about Sudan and despite its massive aid efforts to the country, it once again risks becoming irrelevant to the warring parties in Sudan.
By and large, European leaders have failed to exert Europe’s power abroad in every major international affair and have allowed the US to take the lead even on Russia’s war in Europe. This state of affairs should seriously concern European leaders, prompting them to speed up the implementation of Mario Draghi’s proposals and accelerate talks on a European federal union.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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