The economic rivalry between the United States and China will be difficult for Europe to handle in the long run, and countries need to commit beyond their narrow individual interests to preserve multilateralism, Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said on Tuesday during the Koerber Stiftung Foreign Policy Forum in Berlin
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2019) The economic rivalry between the United States and China will be difficult for Europe to handle in the long run, and countries need to commit beyond their narrow individual interests to preserve multilateralism, Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said on Tuesday during the Koerber Stiftung Foreign Policy Forum in Berlin."While Germany and Norway very firmly belong in the Transatlantic community, the increased rivalry between the US and China will, of course, be seen in international organizations, but it will be challenging for Europe to handle in the long run," Soereide said when speaking about the challenged that multilateralism faces today.
According to the Norwegian minister, many take the multilateral international system for granted, forgetting that it was founded in the aftermath of two devastating world wars. Norway, in particular, relies heavily on its strategic partnerships and alliances, she added.
"At the heart [of multilateralism] is our willingness to commit beyond our narrow self-interest because we realize that for our interests and for others' interests we can achieve more together. At the core of NATO lies our obligation to risk our own soldiers' lives to defend each other... Everything we do as a military alliance, our strength as a military alliance rests heavily on our ability to be politically united. Our political cohesion is key. Without it our military strength would not be the same," Soereide added.
She further urged pro-multilateralism countries to be ready to "make sacrifices and to compromise" and to be careful about the political decisions they make if they "want to see our system work."
The United States and China have been engaged in a trade war since summer 2018, when Washington hiked duties on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports in a bid to balance the trade deficit. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of reciprocal tariffs.
Attempts to discuss the trade discord, including by US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during the G20 summit in Osaka, yielded no results. In September, Beijing even lodged a case against Washington at the World Trade Organization. Earlier this months, the sides announced preparing to sign "Phase One" of a trade agreement by the end of the year.
