• International community.The Munich Conference certifies the crisis of diplomacy and multilateralism

French President Emmanuel Macron has once again served as a devil's lawyer in the EU and has accused Germany of slowing down the reform process that the Union requires to guarantee its sovereignty. "Europe runs the risk of becoming a continent that does not believe in its future," he warned. Guest star on the second day of the Munich Security Conference, which Chancellor Angela Merkel did not attend this year, Macron asked Berlin for an effort to align positions on the future of Europe and avoid the "historical error" that would result in the rupture of the Franco-German axis. He did not talk about "frustration" at Germany's response to his proposals for EU reform, but about "impatience."

"I do not intend to mark the steps of Chancellor Merkel and I do not want to be led by her either, but just as the union of France and Germany is not enough in a Europe of Twenty-seven, without France and Germany everything is blocked," said Macron, who he asked the European middle class for perspectives, vitality to the community institutions and agility in the integration and development of the community block, "without which " it is impossible to speak of a new enlargement " .

For Macron, who came to testify to the decline of the West, of multilateralism and the change of rules implied by the irruption on the international board of China or a Russia in search of world recognition, Europe can only guarantee its sovereignty in the medium and long term if it has its own defense instruments. "The key in the defense of Europe is in Europe and not in transatlantic relations," said the French president. He did not repeat that NATO is in brain death, he claimed more Europe.

He recalled that after the United Kingdom's exit from the EU, France is the only European power with nuclear weapons and in this regard reiterated its willingness to engage in a strategic dialogue with European partners in the framework of a common security and defense architecture, proposed that Germany has welcomed coldly.

Prior to the intervention of Macron, the head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, and the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, claimed the role of the Alliance in world stability.

"NATO and the EU are expensive in the same currency. If we weaken NATO we weaken Europe," said Stoltenberg.

Syrian conflict

Pompeo went up to the rostrum to reiterate his country's commitment to NATO and the multilateral. "I have heard statements doubting the US commitment to multilateralism and the very idea of ​​an international community. The last one I heard yesterday at this conference," said Pompeo, referring to the inaugural address of German President Frank Walter Steinmeier. "These statements do not reflect reality," said the American, who cited as examples of international commitment the defense of the sovereignty of Ukraine; the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group, the murder of its leader, Abu Bakr Bagdadi; and that of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.

None of these actions has resolved the conflict in Iraq and Syria, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a regular guest in Munich. Lavrov speaks little, but always clearly and positively, bypassing accusations of Russian interference to maintain or increase his weight on the global geopolitical board. "We are in a multipolar world from a military, political, technological or economic point of view and it is normal for everyone to seek their plot of influence. But there is only talk of countering the threat of China and Russia, together or separately," Lavrov said for whom the world is more complex than that, hence President Vladimir Putin has proposed a summit of the permanent member countries of the UN Security Council.

Before Lavrov insisted on Putin's proposal, Macron accused Russia in his intervention of curbing the progress of the Security Council and persisting in its destabilizing role in the electoral campaigns of other countries.

And yet he was in favor of improving relations with Russia, dotted with sanctions since its annexation of Crimea. " The sanctions have changed absolutely nothing . I am not proposing to lift them, I just note," said Macron, who, unlike the US, sees no danger in a Russian rearmament because "financially it is unsustainable" and also in a durable alliance between Moscow and Beijing Well, "Chinese hegemony is not compatible with Russian pride."

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  • Angela Merkel
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International community The Munich Conference certifies the crisis of diplomacy and multilateralism