By Sanxuan

After India, the EU has now turned its attention to Vietnam.

On Thursday local time, European Council President Costa announced a major news during his visit to Vietnam: the EU-Vietnam relationship will be upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

European Council President Costa meets with Vietnamese President Lai Qiang

Don't be deceived by just a change in name; the content is entirely different. After becoming a comprehensive strategic partner, cooperation between the two sides in all fields will be further strengthened, including political diplomacy and economic trade.

It's not hard to see that the EU's move is aimed at attracting more countries to jointly counter the US threat, especially the emerging countries with excellent economic performance in Asia. Before upgrading relations with Vietnam, the EU had just reached a free trade agreement with India.

Costa pointed out that the international order has been facing severe challenges, which requires the EU to find more reliable partners for deeper cooperation.

He emphasized that these partners must be "predictable," leaving no room but to directly write "unpredictable" on Trump's face.

Trump

Costa also didn't forget to promote the values that the EU is proud of. He said that the EU and Vietnam are not in agreement on all issues, but as long as they can openly discuss and communicate frankly, they can always find a way acceptable to both. The premise of this is that both sides support the UN Charter.

This again hit Trump in the face. He recently established a peace committee to replace the United Nations, intending to take control of the international order. Now the EU is taking up the banner of the UN Charter, clearly indicating that it wants to go against the US.

According to the joint statement, the EU and Vietnam will focus on cooperation opportunities in areas such as energy, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence. In addition, both sides will strengthen cooperation in security and defense.

Naturally, Vietnam won't send troops to help the EU defend Greenland. The so-called security cooperation is nothing more than some international cooperation, such as counter-terrorism. The key is still in the economic and trade field, especially supply chain diversification.

EU and India reach trade agreement

As the EU and India have jointly committed to lowering tariffs on each other, after the upgrade of the bilateral relationship between the EU and Vietnam, Vietnamese goods will also be easier to enter the EU market, which can to some extent promote supply chain diversification and reduce the EU's dependence on the US.

In terms of tariff issues, the EU and Vietnam are in the same boat. Trump imposed tariffs of 15% and 20% on them respectively. Since Vietnam is a manufacturing giant, it was hit harder. India, on the other hand, was hit with a 50% tariff because it bought Russian oil.

In the past, the high-and-mighty Europe wouldn't even look down on middle-level emerging countries like India and Vietnam. But now, the problem is that the EU and the US are about to split. Even if they don't want to, they have to cooperate with as many countries as possible to hedge their risks.

The Greenland crisis remains unresolved

On the other hand, the Asian countries that the EU seeks cooperation with are mostly neighboring countries of China and have certain manufacturing capabilities. It is not excluded that they may want to team up to target China. After all, Macron has been loudly claiming that China is "dumping excess capacity" to Europe and wants to break the "monopoly".

It's unclear how the EU is managing, but it insists on getting involved with three major powers: China, the US, and Russia. If so, even if there are risks in cooperating with countries like India and Vietnam, the EU will still jump into the pit eagerly.

There's nothing else to do. The EU has long been pushed to the children's table by Trump and Putin, naturally losing the qualification for great power games, and can only find middle-sized countries to huddle together for warmth.



Original: toutiao.com/article/7600981176165122600/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.