Posted on 03/18/2005 7:02:58 AM PST by Alex Marko
BRUSSELS – The US ambassador to the European Union has warned that the transatlantic dispute over the EU’s proposed lifting of the China arms embargo could escalate into something "very very serious".
In an interview with the EUobserver, Rockwell Schabel said, "We feel that it is the wrong thing to do and particularly now that this law has been passed", he said referring to a law passed by the National People's Congress of China authorising an invasion of Taiwan if the island seeks independence.
He said it was likely that it is going to affect trade between the two sides.
"What you're going to get is the American Congress that is going to take a stand and say wait a minute, if the Europeans are selling arms in which we have potentially our technology, you're going to get companies that are not going to be able to sell their weapons to the Europeans anymore".
"This thing will escalate into something very, very serious", he predicted adding, "who knows what the Congress will do but they will take it "extremely seriously".
Asked if the proposed lifting of the ban - imposed in 1989 after China's military fired on pro democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square - goes against what the EU preaches on democracy and values, Mr Schnabel said "we think there is a degree of that".
There is not a enough movement on human rights issues in China, said the ambassador.
Linking it to another issue, Mr Schnabel added: "We hope very much that the Europeans are listening to us as we did listen to them as it related to Iran".
US hegemony Speaking about Washington’s role in the world, the ambassador said that despite the EU's increasing importance on the world stage, it is unlikely to topple US hegemony.
"I think that the EU is going to play an ever increasingly important role in the world [but] whether they will challenge, or take over from the United States, I don't see that".
According to Mr Schnabel, who is a close ally of US President George W. Bush, the EU's favoured method of soft power, which it has used to great effect to persuade swathes of countries to enacts democratic reforms for a slice of the EU pie, is not enough.
"We have serious threats out there ... you have to be able to counter that; along with soft power has to be a capability or harder power, if you will, and they go very well together".
"You need the capability, you can't just disarm and have no capability in that area at all".
The EU "also needs to spend more [on defence] if they talk about playing a role in the world from a foreign policy standpoint".
In favour of the Constitution The ambassador also spoke out in favour of the European Constitution, which Brussels is hoping to see in place by late next year.
While stressing that it is an "EU issue" he added that "the Constitution for Europe is a good idea in that it will make Europe a strong and better running organisation [...] and we are in favour of a stronger Europe".
"We are following it very carefully, we know very well what's going on in the Constitution".
Speaking more generally on transatlantic relations, Mr Schnabel, who is a wealthy West coast businessman and former US ambassador to Finland, said it was a "difficult time" leading up to and directly after the Iraq war and "it is only recently, particularly since the [presidential] elections that people thought it is time to put the protest behind us and move forward".
He cited as evidence of both sides listening to each other again the EU agreeing to help in the restructuring of Iraq and the US agreeing to follow the European diplomatic approach to Iran.
Self Ping for later comment.
Looming prospect of EU under export control over dual-use technology. That is interesting. U.S. and EU have been in a unending cycle of fight followed by an appearance of making up.
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