For months since the return of US President Donald Trump, there has been a roaring trade in papers and speeches about how to make Europe a truly independent geopolitical player.
The term “strategic autonomy”, championed by the French government during Trump’s first term, is back in vogue.
But the independence movement was on the ropes this week, when a series of summits thrust Europe’s weakness on global affairs into the spotlight ahead of a bout of engagement with China.
On Monday, a meeting of the European Union’s foreign ministers exposed the bloc’s impotence on the ongoing crises in the Middle East. On Tuesday and Wednesday, meanwhile, the world watched as European leaders fawned over Trump to try to keep him engaged at the annual Nato summit in The Hague.
WhatsApp groups across Europe lit up after Trump published text messages from Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, telling him that he was “flying into another big success”. They lit up again after he called Trump “daddy” a day later.
“Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win,” wrote Rutte, who spent 14 years as the Dutch prime minister until last July, while only once hitting Nato’s defence spending targets.
