Regarding the meeting between the leaders of the United States and France, AFP reported that Macron was the first French president to pay a state visit to the United States twice on invitation, which was a rare "honor". However, CNN previously said that officials of both countries did not expect the visit to produce significant results. 65438+February 1 Local time, when meeting with visiting French President Macron, US President Biden expressed his willingness to "fine-tune" France and Europe's strong dissatisfaction with the US inflation reduction bill, but did not specify specific measures.
Extended reading:
Expert: Biden welcomed Mark Yue Long with rare specifications and explained the problems between the two countries.
Direct News: What do you think of Biden's warm and grand welcome to French President Macron during his state visit to the United States?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: Indeed, this is the first time that Biden has received foreign leaders with the highest diplomatic courtesy since he took office as President of the United States. Other leaders who have visited the United States before have no chance to enjoy such high-standard treatment.
However, as the saying goes, the content is not enough. When really good friends meet and really friendly countries exchange visits, such as the visit of Japanese and British leaders to the United States, there is no need for so much etiquette. The more grand the Biden administration welcomes Macron, the more it shows that there are problems between France and the United States.
So, where is the problem? I think, realistically speaking, on the most fundamental issues, that is, ideology, values and security concepts, they are not only in conflict, but also in the same trench. Therefore, as soon as Biden took office, he put the focus of diplomatic work on the European continent, raised the banner of ideology and values to the European continent, and blew the assembly number of "* * * to contain China" to the European continent. In this regard, the whole European continent, including France, or the European Union, immediately chose to take sides and immediately followed. Otherwise, the EU will not make irresponsible remarks about China on the so-called human rights issue, the hard-won comprehensive investment agreement between China and Europe will not be shelved, and European countries will not follow the example of the United States in imposing sanctions on China on the construction of 5G base stations and chips. On the security level, after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the whole EU followed the United States to provide Ukraine with a large amount of military assistance, and at the same time imposed severe economic and financial sanctions on Russia, even at the expense of a strong man to cut off the Russian-European natural gas trade.
In other words, the problem between the European Union headed by France and the United States is not an ideological and security issue, but a realistic national interest, or a money issue. This is mainly manifested in three aspects. First, when the European Union responded to the call of the United States to impose energy sanctions and blockade on Russia, American energy companies took the opportunity to make a lot of money and sold energy to the European Union at a price four times higher than the market. Second, the EU is unwilling to blindly follow the United States and China in the trade war, because economic exchanges with China are of vital importance to the EU. Third, France and the EU are even more angry. While the EU cooperates with the US economic sanctions against China, the US Inflation Reduction Act takes the opportunity to hurt even EU enterprises. It can be seen that the relationship between the European Union headed by France and the United States has fallen into an embarrassing state of "talking about feelings and ideals will hurt money, and talking about money will hurt feelings and ideals".
Direct news: In your opinion, will the United States finally compromise with the European Union headed by France at the national interest level? If Biden's government refuses to compromise, can the European Union, led by France, compete with the United States?
Special commentator Liu Heping: I think that in order to appease the feelings between Macron and France, it is not excluded that Biden's government will touch Macron's head and give France a candy, that is, it will give some limited care to French enterprises in the Inflation Reduction Act. However, in recent years, French anti-American and anti-NATO issues are the fiercest, including Macron's proposal to make the EU the other pole of the world except the United States, and to establish a European army to get rid of its military dependence on NATO. But in the long run and fundamentally, it is impossible for the United States to make substantial concessions to the European Union headed by France. The reason behind this is that neither France nor the European Union has much strength and capital to challenge the United States, and the United States has many cards to balance the European Union.
First of all, in the past few years, while wooing the EU, the United States is also starting a new circle or starting a new stove to check and balance the EU. The typical performance is to further strengthen the role of the five-eye alliance based on Anglo-Saxons, including the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, especially alienating the relationship between Britain, Australia and continental Europe. The United States encouraged Britain to leave the European Union, the United States, Britain and Australia formed a trilateral military alliance, and Australia tore up the submarine contract with France and cooperated with the United States and Britain to produce nuclear-powered submarines. These are all landmark events.
Secondly, the United States has also implemented the strategy of "controlling Europe with Europe" within the EU. Because within Europe, those who advocate pro-China, pro-Russia and EU independence from the United States are all traditional European powers headed by France, Germany and Italy. However, after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Central and Eastern European countries had serious differences with the traditional European powers because of their concerns about security and ideology. Biden's government made full use of this opportunity, supported the ideas of Central and Eastern European countries, expanded the contradictions within the EU, and made France, Germany and Italy have to accommodate the ideas of the United States for fear of the EU's split, thus putting the security issue in an extremely prominent position, overwhelming the ideas of France, Germany and Italy that they are free from American control and eager to develop economic and trade relations with China and Russia.
What's more, the United States has fully grasped and made use of the contradiction between officials and people in the EU and European countries, that is, the government advocates pro-Russia and pro-China economic development, while the people play ideological cards in the United States, and the right-wing sentiment rises after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, so as to manipulate the EU and European governments. This is why the European Parliament and European parliaments are constantly pushing their governments to the radical path.
In my opinion, these three measures taken by the United States, coupled with global inflation and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in recent years, have also led to a large number of European funds fleeing from the United States, which has led to a tight financial situation in Europe and weakened the ability of the European Union headed by France to counter the United States.
Finally, I would like to remind you that although expressing dissatisfaction with the US Inflation Reduction Act is the most important purpose of Macron's current visit to the United States. However, we can see that when dealing with this issue, Macron's position and realm are not high. It stands to reason that the Inflation Reduction Act of the United States violates the market rules of free trade and fair competition and should be abolished. However, Macron only asked the United States to benefit the European Union, especially French enterprises, when implementing the inflation reduction bill. In other words, Macron thinks that you in the United States can continue to use the Inflation Reduction Act to discriminate against enterprises in other countries, including China, as long as you make an exception to the EU, especially the French. This proves once again that although France and the United States have frictions in trade and even national interests, they are still a group in essence. At the same time, this limitation of thinking and vision is also an important reason why the European Union headed by France cannot compete with the United States.