French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned that rising diplomatic tensions between the US and China will weaken international relations after the coronavirus crisis. In an interview with influential paper Le Monde, the minister said that the pandemic is being overshadowed by the rivalry between the world’s biggest two economies.
“It seems to me that we are witnessing an amplification of the fractures that have been undermining the international order for years,” said a concerned Le Drian. “The pandemic is the continuation, by different means, of the struggle between powers.”
The US has been vocal in its criticism of the handling of the disease by the Chinese leadership and accuses Beijing of responding poorly to a outbreak that has left over 170,000 deaths worldwide and stagnated the global economy.
China has flatly denied suggestions that it has dragged its feet or that it has under-reported actual Covid-19 cases in the country. Instead, it implied that the virus may have emerged from the US military.
The diplomatic tit-for-tat has been long coming, argues Le Drian, but the crisis is facilitating the deep split. The French minister said that the announcement by US President Donald Trump last week to stop funding to the World Health Organization is another blow to multilateralism, but Le Drian sees a pattern in the American President’s “retreat from global leadership.”
Europe must pursue its role in the world even while Sino-American relations deteriorate, advises the former Minister of Defence. He said that European governments sometimes fall prey to divisionary tactics by other powers but says that it is now the right moment for the EU to find its own “leadership destiny.”
