EU needs courage to deter Washington's coercion: China Daily editorial

Cooperation and consultation should always triumph over confrontation and division, and that explicit message, jointly sent by China and France this week, will help inject more certainty into today's world.

In a telephone conversation on Monday, Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic counselor to French President Emmanuel Macron, shored up the two countries' shared commitment to promoting China-France ties, China's ties with the European Union and the spirit of multilateralism.

Thanks to their mutual efforts, China-France ties have withstood the test of the times, setting a good example for countries with different social and political backgrounds to maintain stable and healthy cooperation on both the bilateral and multilateral fronts.

Beijing and Paris have continually deepened their strategic mutual trust and consolidated their comprehensive strategic partnership through frequent high-level exchanges, and there are bright prospects for them to tap into new fields of cooperation and further expand their mutual interests.

France, as a leading member of the European Union, can also play an important role in injecting new impetus into the pragmatic cooperation between the EU and China. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership. But their relations have taken a turn for the worse as a result of Washington manipulating the heightened security concerns of European countries, triggered by the conflict in Ukraine.

Since it successfully instigated hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, the US administration has sought to use the EU's closer security alignment with the US as an opportunity to get the EU's support for its efforts to contain China. But with Washington having shown its disregard for the EU's economic interests, it should be crystal clear to the US' European allies that in Washington's eyes they are there to be used and abused.

The EU members should accept the hard, albeit unwelcome truth that the US is determined to pursue its global supremacy and consolidate its global leadership at any cost, including at the expense of its allies. Under the US pressure and coercion, the EU is already seeing a downturn in its ties with China, which will only exacerbate the bloc's economic woes.

China and France are both permanent members of the UN Security Council, and their upholding of multilateralism and opposition to the Cold War mentality and bloc politics can also help promote the concerted actions that are necessary to address the many pressing challenges facing humanity.

The world has more than enough troubles to deal with, and forging greater trust, strengthening cooperation and deepening international consensus, as China and France are doing, will help prevent the sowing of differences and the stoking of confrontation that lead to their proliferation.