EU Army on way? EU cannot rely on NATO and needs new defence policy says Brussels chief

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini’s Global Strategy document states that “as Europeans we must take greater responsibility for our security”.

The white paper adds: “While NATO exists to defend its members — most of which are European — from external attack, Europeans must be better equipped, trained and organised to contribute decisively to such collective efforts, as well as to act autonomously if and when necessary.

EU global strategy: ‘We must be ready to go beyond NATO’

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the Commission Federica Mogherini | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images

 

Federica Mogherini set to propose stronger new role for the bloc on the world stage.

Europe must be able to develop its own military autonomy by going beyond NATO, says a new foreign policy and security proposal to be presented Tuesday to European leaders.

“When it comes to collective defense, NATO remains the primary framework for most member states” but “as Europeans we must take greater responsibility for our security,” states the Global Strategy, a document from EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

China plots strategic coup in the Pacific

Despite commentary that China and the United States are moving closer together, the opposite is the case. In fact, China is mounting a direct, if subtle, challenge to the international order the United States created in the Far East after World War II. Most are aware that China is attempting to leverage growing military strength into a larger, dominating position by laying claims to islands in the East and South China Seas. Few realize that China is attempting to overturn the legal underpinnings of the US position in the western Pacific.

Like the Chinese proverb “to point at the mulberry tree to curse the locust tree”, Beijing’s challenge to Japan’s sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands is in fact a bid to abolish the entire structure of Far Eastern international relations established by the San Francisco Treaty of September 1951. (The Chinese refer to the Senkakus as Dyiaoyutai, literally a “fishing platform”, but in recent months Beijing has taken to calling Dyiaoyutai the Dyiaoyu Islands to add legal heft to the dispute.)