Sir, – Shane Brett (December 1st) writes that the “rising East” engine of economic growth is good as it gives the West the years we need “to put our internal economic houses in order”. A naive view I fear.
As I write, Hilary Clinton is in Burma, a country with huge geopolitical importance as it sits between China and India. Just two weeks ago President Obama was at the ASEAN summit in Bali, Indonesia, and in August US vice president Biden was glad-handing anyone who would see him in China. On November 13th at the Apec Summit in Hawaii, President Obama in his opening well-prepared remarks spoke of the trans-Pacific region and said of the US plus Asia: “Our 21 economies – our nearly three billion citizens – are looking to us to bring our economies closer, to increase exports, to expand trade and opportunity that creates jobs and economic growth. That’s why we’re here”.
From here on, Europe will play second fiddle, politically and economically, to the trans-Pacific relationship between US and Asia. Let us call the “special relationship” with England; the pint in Moneygal and the shamrock in the White House on St Patrick’s Day for what it is. It is a sop to a sentimental greying and dwindling WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) and Irish American vote in the US, no more and no less. Europe needs to get real. – Yours, etc,