The New Configuration Of European Diplomacy Was Not Concocted By Merkel

Last Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the United States and the United Kingdom would no longer be reliable allies to Europe. Speaking at an election rally in a Bavarian beer hall, Merkel announced that: “The times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days.” Her speech followed discordant talks at the G7 and NATO summits earlier that week. Merkel described the outcome of these discussions on Saturday as “six against one” and “very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory.”

On his first trip abroad as President, Donald Trump persistently clashed with the United States’ previously close allies. At the NATO summit in Brussels, Trump failed to reiterate the United States’ commitment to Article 5 of the NATO accord; commitment to mutual defence. Article 5 is the keystone of the alliance and has only been invoked once – when all the members of NATO agreed to support the United States in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. At the two-day G7 Summit in Sicily, Trump refused to say whether he would uphold the Paris climate accords, an agreement that former President Barack Obama committed the US to adopt only two years earlier.

Following her announcement, the Chancellor has been unfairly cast as a diplomatic aggressor. She has been blamed for weakening the Western alliance, for ringing its ‘death-knell’ and delivering the traditional bonds a ‘near-fatal blow.’ The Financial Times described the speech as an irresponsible blunder that could serve to embolden Russia to test the capabilities of the potentially newly weakened alliance. However, in the aftermath of the dissonant NATO and G7 Summits, Merkel guaranteed that while Europe must “take our destiny in our hands,” it will “of course” maintain friendly relations with every one of its “neighbours,” including the US, the UK and Russia. Merkel, who is now often referred to as the leader of the free world, was characteristically and essentially diplomatic.

Merkel’s vision of European diplomacy involves closer continental ties but it does not shut the door to wider trans-Atlantic diplomacy. By contrast, on the 23rd of June 2016, Britain announced its severance from Europe by voting to leave the European Union. More recently, Trump has confirmed his withdrawal from the Paris Accord. Merkel has left the door open to diplomacy while Britain and Trump have walked away.

The British government must try to preserve the ties that have protected peace in the West for the last 70 years. This will clearly be a difficult task as the changing shape of transatlantic relations indicates that post-Brexit Britain is far from independent. Increasingly distant from its formerly close European allies, Britain may become increasingly dependent on its ‘special relationship’ with the United States, potentially tied to securing a trade deal with a hardly steadfast ally. The trans-Atlantic alliance has been weakened but despite the various accusations levied towards her, Angela Merkel did not concoct these conditions.

Trump’s European tour of political offence and Britain’s exit from the European Union have laid the foundations for a potentially seismic reconfiguration of trans-Atlantic diplomatic relations. As logically follows from Britain’s severance, the nation will probably become more distant from its traditionally close European allies. It should come as no surprise that when you close the door to your neighbour, they may not welcome you into their home.

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