Headlines

By failing to face up to its difficulties, the European Union makes them only worse.

 May 14.– Seventy years ago this month Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister, proposed a European “coal and steel community”. With that humble agreement governing two commodities, six war-ravaged countries created a common market that evolved into the European Union.

The journey towards integration since then has been bumpy, but it has had a sense of direction. National leaders came and went, the Berlin Wall rose and fell, economic hurricanes struck and blew themselves out. Somehow, the eu muddled through. It deepened, building the world’s largest single market, letting its people move freely across borders and creating a common currency. It broadened, as 22 states joined the original six, including 11 that had suffered for decades under communism. It cemented peace and spread prosperity. Today, Europe is a beacon of liberal values and an exemplar of a gentler type of capitalism.

A relationship long burdened by rivalry and suspicion has fallen into outright hostility.

The new Cold War: The pandemic is driving America and China further apart.

May 9.– You might have hoped that a pandemic would bring the world together. Instead covid-19 is tearing it apart. As the disease has spread, relations between America and China have plunged into an abyss from which they will struggle to escape.

Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, says he has “enormous evidence” that the virus behind covid-19 came from a laboratory in Wuhan — though America’s intelligence agencies as well as its closest intelligence partners say proof is still lacking. To punish China for letting the disease spread, the Trump administration has reportedly considered demanding reparations or cancelling some Treasury bonds held by China — though nervous American officials later dismissed this crackpot idea. China has branded Mr Pompeo “insane” and a “political virus” (see article). State-run media are calling for an international investigation into America’s “incredible failure” to deal with the outbreak.

‘FIGHT TO STOP CHINA’: A petition launched by the US’ former envoy to the UN urges the US to hold China to account for covering up the coronavirus pandemic.

Washington DC, Apr.27 (CNA).– Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has launched an online petition urging the US Congress to probe whether China covered up the COVID-19 outbreak and support Taiwan’s bid to join the WHO.

More than 76,800 people had signed the “Stop Communist China” petition as of last night, three days after it was launched by Haley, who has set a goal of 100,000 signatures.

With a wide range of activities and capabilities, France is making contributions to maritime security throughout the Indo-Pacific region.

Paris, Apr.3.– In July, France will take over the chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium for 2020-22. The first summit meeting, to be held in La Réunion, was postponed from late June to November. France’s chairmanship is an important symbol of the growing regional integration of French territories in the Indian and Pacific oceans, encouraged by Paris, and of the growing importance of maritime security issues in French strategy in the Indo-Pacific. The main reasons of the latter are threefold.

First, with nearly 2 million nationals living in the region and an EEZ of 9 million square kilometers, the protection of national maritime spaces and their resources constitutes a fundamental mission of the 7,000 French soldiers deployed permanently on five bases (La Réunion, Djibouti, Abu Dhabi, Nouméa, Papeete), notwithstanding naval forces sent on a regular base from metropolitan France.