The European Union is being reminded of its relegation to bystander status as the US and China prepare to discuss artificial intelligence, trade and global instability. The EU’s dependence on US military kit and lack of tech champions have left it inaudible in the Middle East and uninvited to Ukraine-Russia peace talks.
As Donald Trump and Xi Jinping prepare to discuss artificial intelligence, trade and global instability, Europe is being reminded once again of its relegation to bystander status after years of punching below its weight in defense and technology. The EU’s dependence on US military kit such as the F-35 fighter jet, its lack of tech champions and its internal squabbles have left it inaudible in the Middle East, uninvited to Ukraine-Russia peace talks and pretty helpless when access to powerful American AI models gets cut off abruptly.
The EU leans heavily as well on Silicon Valley and Seattle giants such as Amazon.com Inc., which control 70% of the region’s cloud-computing business. On AI, the bloc might be reduced to the role of rule-taker if the US and China ever make joint decisions on pacing the development of the most advanced models. The EU gets about 70% of its rare-earth imports from China, and Beijing has been happy to use this stuff as leverage against Europe.
To its credit, the bloc is at least finally talking about supply-chain resilience, defense spending, power-grid investments and plans to “use all tools” to counter trade imbalances with China. The real challenge is to turn the talk into concrete action and to properly wield its heft as a single market.
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