HAMBURG, Germany — The Europeans have stopped trying to paper over their differences with President Trump and the United States.
Traditionally
respectful of American leadership and mindful of the country’s crucial
role in European defense and global trade, European leaders normally
repress or soften their criticism of United States presidents. Europeans
were generally not happy with President Barack Obama’s reluctance to
involve the country in Libya and Syria, for example, or his tardiness to
engage in what clearly became an international confrontation with
Russia in Ukraine, but their criticism was quiet.
But here at the Group of 20
summit meeting of the world’s industrialized nations, public splits
with Mr. Trump were the order of the day. Those rifts have been
reflected in European domestic politics, too, from Britain and France to
Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Europe must “take our fate into our own hands” and stop “glossing over” clear differences.
The
new French president, Emmanuel Macron, whose election has given renewed
confidence to the Europeans, said bluntly: “Our world has never been so
divided. Centrifugal forces have never been so powerful. Our common
goods have never been so threatened.”
Continue reading the main story
Mr.
Macron, who waved his iPhone around during the meeting as a symbol of
global trade, sharply criticized those like Mr. Trump who do not support
multilateral institutions but push nationalism instead.
“We
need better coordination, more coordination,” Mr. Macron said. “We need
those organizations that were created out of the Second World War.
Otherwise, we will be moving back toward narrow-minded nationalism.”
Mr. Trump and the British vote to leave the European Union
“have proved to be great unifiers for the European Union,” said Mark
Leonard, the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“There is a renewed sense of confidence in Europe after the French
election,” the apparent retreat of populism, an increase in economic
growth and the prospect of Ms. Merkel’s re-election in September, he
said.
“There
is an increased willingness to be assertive toward Trump, who makes
Merkel look like a figure of international importance,” Mr. Leonard
said. “If the election is about who can save the international world
order from Trump,” he added, then Ms. Merkel’s opposition seems
unimportant and she finds an eager partner in Mr. Macron. “They egg each
other on and feel more self-confident together and help keep Europe
together, too.”
Jan
Techau, the director of the Richard Holbrooke Forum at the American
Academy in Berlin, said: “There is now a more openly confrontational
language with the United States. The European public is already
outspoken about Trump, but now there is a more outspoken European
leadership that won’t paper over these divisions anymore.”
If
Europeans had previously felt constrained because of their security
dependency, Mr. Techau said, there is now a feeling that “Trump has no
constraints and will say anything, and now the Europeans feel they can
do the same.” And, he said, “that means less respect for each other, and
less mutual confidence.”
François
Heisbourg, a French security analyst, agrees. “The reticence has gone
away,” he said. “On an issue-by-issue basis, there is apparently no
penalty for playing hardball with Trump without necessarily affecting
security, on climate for example.”
The
strains were most visible here on climate policy and trade. Mr. Trump’s
withdrawal from the Paris accord was widely condemned, with Ms. Merkel
saying she deplored the move, and all the leaders aside from Mr. Trump
signing up to language that called the agreement “irreversible.”
“Whatever
leadership is,” said one senior French diplomat, who was not authorized
to speak by name and insisted on anonymity, “it is not being outvoted,
19 to 1.”
Is a United Europe Important? 13 U.S. Presidents Think So.
For more than 70 years, U.S.
presidents have spoken as one voice on how a free and united Europe is
in America’s national security interests.
By CAMILLA SCHICK and ROBIN LINDSAY on Publish Date July 7, 2017.
.
Watch in Times Video »
The climate debate in the meeting displayed how hard it is to isolate the richest, most powerful country in the world.
The
Americans did try to persuade some of the countries here, like Turkey
and Poland, which Mr. Trump visited just before going to Hamburg, to
move toward the American position on climate, but they were rebuffed.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said later that his country
might still be in play, depending on money. The American withdrawal, he
said, jeopardized compensation for developing countries to cope with
compliance.
Australia
and Saudi Arabia, which Mr. Trump has wooed, were also leaning toward
adopting part of the American position in the final communiqué,
especially on “working closely with other countries to help them access
and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently,” European officials
said.
One
negotiator familiar with the talks said some countries had expressed
interest in supporting that American language. Sarah Ladislaw, the
director of the energy and security program at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies in Washington, noted that a number of fossil
fuel countries that want to continue to export more efficient coal and
gas technologies might be relieved to see the change in tune from the
Obama administration’s.
“There
is likely a lot of pent-up sentiment that knows it’s probably not the
polite thing to say, but they’re really pleased the U.S. is saying it,”
Ms. Ladislaw said.
Prime
Minister Theresa May of Britain, her authority weakened at home after a
botched election gamble, also tried to balance Mr. Trump’s deep
unpopularity in Britain with her need for American support for the
country’s exit from the European Union and for future trade deals She
was criticized for not making the climate issue one of her four
priorities here, and found comfort in Mr. Trump’s promise of a “very
powerful” trade deal for a post-“Brexit” Britain that could be completed
“very, very quickly.”
Mrs.
May even expressed the hope that Mr. Trump might change his mind on
Paris, though Ms. Merkel did not agree. And in the end, all wavering
members sided with the 19, not the one.
The
White House saw progress nonetheless. “The vast majority of the G-20
supports the president’s vision for universal access to affordable and
reliable energy, including finding ways to burn fossil fuels more
cleanly and efficiently,” said George David Banks, a special assistant
to the president on international energy and environment and lead
negotiator for climate change during the G-20 conference.
On trade, there was more effort to find compromise, with previous G-20 positions for free trade and against protectionism
watered down to secure American support. The communiqué cited, for the
first time, the right of countries to protect their markets with
“legitimate trade defense instruments” — wording that essentially gives
Mr. Trump room to pursue his “America first” policy on issues like steel
imports, where Washington is talking about restrictions based on
“national security.”
The
group agreed to accelerate work on a global review of steel production
and sales, though any sanctions must meet the standards of the World
Trade Organization.
In
a general way, such open disagreements can undermine future coherence
in times of crisis, Eswar Prasad, a professor of economics and trade at
Cornell University, wrote in an email.
“Trump
has put the rest of the G-20 in a largely defensive mode,” he said, as
they try to limit the damage on issues like globalization,
multilateralism and climate. But “it comes at a cost of eroding U.S.
leadership,” he said. “If even in calm times such rifts are exposed, it
could make it more complicated for the group to work together in more
complicated circumstances.”
Yet
politics also matter. The Europeans are determined to punish Mr. Trump
for abandoning the Paris accord as a matter of “diplomatic dignity,”
said Paul Bledsoe, who was an aide to President Bill Clinton on climate
change.
“Because
European leaders pleaded with Trump to stay and he rebuked them so
directly,” Mr. Bledsoe said, “I think they’re determined to show the
administration there’s going to be a price to pay, even if it’s not
entirely in Europe’s own interest.”
Continue reading the main story
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment