The United States will not force its allies to distance themselves from China

Brussels. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on March 24 that the United States would not force any NATO ally to choose between Washington and Beijing, although he warned that China was trying to undermine Western liberal democracies.

European allies, such as France and Germany, seek to strike a strategic balance in their relations with Beijing and Washington to ensure that the European Union is not so closely allied with one of the two world superpowers that it annoys the other.

“The United States will not force its allies to choose between” us or them “against China, Blinken said on his first visit to Europe as the top diplomat in Washington at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

The European Union, led by France, wants independence from the United States, its ally and protector, for more than seven decades. Spain and the Netherlands urged the bloc to keep its economy open while seeking “strategic autonomy”.

“Countries can work with China wherever possible,” Blinken said, referring to climate change.

Nevertheless, Blinken said, China is “actively eroding the rules of the international order and the values ​​we share with our allies.”