EU needs to soul-search on summit failure

This is an editorial from China Daily.

Rather than showcase harmony and unity, as the host intended, the summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, held in Brussels from Monday to Tuesday, highlighted the two sides' positions on many issues are irreconcilable.

Both the EU and CELAC are well aware that it is Brussels' "de-risking" strategy in relation to China and its participation in Washington's scheme to enervate Russia that have forced the EU to turn to Latin America for raw industrial materials and energy, not the concerns of the Latin American and Caribbean countries.

To relieve the awkwardness caused by that, the EU president quoted Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges at the opening of the first EU-CELAC summit in eight years: "Contrary to love, friendship does not require frequency." But that only served to highlight the EU's attention is motivated by need.

Even some European leaders voiced recognition of the error of the EU's ways.

"You have to realize that in the past, we didn't pick up the phone when they had issues. So there is very serious irritation among a great many countries," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. "That we get this back in our face now is also proof that we, as Europe, sometimes acted a bit arrogantly."

That the European countries don't treat Latin American and Caribbean states as equal partners even in the 21st century has been salt in the wounds for the CELAC countries, many of which were former colonies of European countries.

As Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which holds the presidency of the 33-nation CELAC, said, "Most of Europe was, and still is, overwhelmingly the lopsided beneficiary in a relationship, in which our Latin America and our Caribbean, have been and are unequally yoked."

No official joint declaration was released after the summit nor were there any announcements on economic and trade deals. That no breakthroughs were made on even such long-stalled trade agreements as the EU-Mercosur deal between the EU and Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay — which has foundered for five years just short of full ratification — further exposes that the divergences that exist between the two sides run deeper than trade issues.

It is therefore ridiculous that some in the EU attribute the fruitlessness of the summit to China's engagement with Latin America, which they argue has helped raise the latter's profile.

Those people should do some soul-searching on the root cause of the difficulties in the EU's relations with the region, which it has never treated with due respect and on an equal footing.

And after surrendering its strategic autonomy to Washington, the EU is discovering that handling relations with Latin America, or any other part of the world that is not included in Washington's country club, can only be done in the shadow of the US.