Managing tensions and promoting cooperation: US-Europe approaches on security issues with China

Over the past decade, US-Europe-China ties have become far more complex and have emerged as one of the most important strategic trilateral relationships in the world. The depth, importance, and resilience of trans-Atlantic relations – spanning the full spectrum of ties from the historical and cultural, to economics, security and values – is well understood. US-China ties have also deepened to an unprecedented degree, though the relationship is still charaterized by persistent lack of trust and mutual hedging. China is the second biggest trading partner for the EU (after the United States) and the EU became China’s largest trading partner in 2004. Moreover, the scope of the ‘Joint Statement of the 10th China-EU Summit’ is a remarkable testament to the wide range of issues China and the EU intend to address.3 The ‘Joint Statement’ is a 47-item document laying out areas of agreement and disagreement between the two sides on issues ranging from political dialogue, to multilateralism and the role of the United Nations; from counter-terrorism, to economics and trade; from issues in regions such as Iran, North Korea, and Burma, to business, educational, and cultural exchanges. However, the unilateral cancelation of the 2008 China-EU summit and the inability of the two sides to issue a joint statement at their 2009 Prague summit, speaks to continuing and perhaps increasing difficulties. So, while over the past decade, Europe-China relations have moved faster than the other two legs of the triangle, the relationship still remains more shallow than the other two.