Strategic autonomy of Europe benefits world: China Daily editorial

Among major Western leaders, French President Emmanuel Macron stands out for talking with sense and substance and for his strong advocacy of the strategic autonomy of Europe and it adopting an independent stance on key issues such as trade and security.

He has a clear vision for Europe's place in the scheme of things, and is eloquent and reasonable when expounding on it. In a speech he made to French ambassadors gathered in Paris on Monday, Macron warned again that European countries, and the West in general, were in danger of decline, as evidenced by their diminishing wealth creation and shrinking share of global trade. "I believe that the international context is becoming more difficult which brings the risk of a weakening of the West, and especially our Europe. We must be clear-sighted in this context," he said.

Behind the changing international landscape, as he pointed out, are Sino-US tensions, the energy crisis, and the fact that "war has returned to European soil", among others. Europe needed to bolster its independence of thought and action if it was to successfully navigate the changes of the times.

The rise and fall of nations, and even civilizations, is a flux of history, and visionary leaders try to adapt to, rather than go against, this historical trend. Europe will have no future if it accepts its strategic dependence on the US as a natural state of affairs.

As Macron said in April, it would be "a trap for Europe" to get caught up in crises "that are not ours". If there was an accelerated escalation of the conflict between the United States and China, "we will not have the time, nor the means to finance our own strategic autonomy and we will become vassals," he warned. To this end, the European Political Community, launched shortly after the start of the conflict in Ukraine, is a "decisive" factor for achieving "a Europe of peace", he said on Monday.

The EPC, an intergovernmental forum that brings together more than 40 European countries, will meet for a third summit in a year in October in Spain, where the participants will discuss security, the economy, the environment and immigration.

Given the dire situation Europe finds itself in as a result of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, one of the most pressing tasks the attendees face is salvaging the European economy from a recession, so as to provide a stable foundation on which Europe can assert its autonomy. This can only be achieved through greater integration among the European economies and more extensive cooperation with other parts of the world, including China. Relatively low consumer spending and persistent inflation have already led to two consecutive quarters of economic contraction in the European Union starting in the last quarter of 2022, and growth this year is likely to be weak.

China and the European countries share substantial common interests that provide a solid platform for enhanced cooperation. Greater Sino-European cooperation would not only help them build trust and overcome differences, but also enable them to play a more constructive role in global governance and face common challenges together. This in turn would help bring stability to the increasingly turbulent world.