The EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said that Asia will play an increasingly significant role in international affairs in the 21st century, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
“First, we live in a world without leaders, in which Asia will play an increasingly important role in economic, security and technology terms. Analysts have long talked about the end of the American system and the arrival of the Asian century,” Josep Borrell told a group of German diplomats.
According to the European diplomat, “if the 21st century turns out to be Asian, as the 20th was American, a pandemic can be remembered as a turning point in this process.” Borrell believes that “the demand for multilateral cooperation has never been so great, but the supply lags behind.”
Assessing the situation, the EU High Representative emphasized that this was the first serious crisis in recent decades, when the United States did not take the lead to response to it.
“They may not be worried about this, but wherever you look, we see growing rivalry, especially between the US and China,” Borrell is convinced.
In this situation, according to the diplomat, the European Union should follow “its own interests and values” and avoid “that one or the other should use it for their own purposes”. According to him, the world is becoming more digital, but also more manageable by the state.
“The key questions will be: who will control the digital networks? And who will set the rules and standards?” Mr Borrel asked, adding that the world also “risks becoming less free, less prosperous, more unequal, more fragmented.”
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