Summary
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined the EU’s vision as a global economic leader during the World Economic Forum, contrasting Trump’s “America First” policies.
She highlighted Europe’s advantages, including its large single market, social infrastructure, and commitment to the Paris climate accord, while emphasizing new alliances with Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Avoiding direct criticism of Trump, von der Leyen underscored the EU’s stability and rules-based approach.
Her speech signaled a pivot away from U.S.-centric relations and a focus on global trade diversification.
Everyone thought the reason he’s making a fuzz is because he wants to sell more US gas. Which I still think was the reason: It’s not like he cared about anything else Russia did, or worried about Europe at any other point in time.
The German strategy of economic entanglement was successful in the sense that it successfully destroyed the Russian economy (making them reliant on imports instead of developing their own capacities), that entanglement stopping aggression was contingent on the Russians being rational.
As to the gas thing: Lots of long-term contracts. E.g. Austria is to this day I think receiving Russian gas, thing is if they stopped receiving they’d still have to pay. Germany got out of that conundrum because the Russians stopped delivering so Germany could cancel the contracts without penalties. You might ask “it’s war, why are we caring about contracts”, and the answer is it’s the Austrians.