Ever since British foreign policy became an adjunct of “our partners” in German Europe we have been losing the geopolitical stage. Joining the NATO expansion after the fall of the Berlin Wall, supporting the push Eastwards by the European Union as it destroyed the national democracies which Soviet withdrawal had allowed and failing to see the enormous changes – economic, social and political – in the former Soviet Union, British foreign policy followed the German and US provocation of Russia.
Some of our military and political personnel even talked and wrote books about the coming war with Russia and, while sticking to the letter of the Moscow Agreement, which prevented military expansion into Eastern Germany, NATO moved its armies and weaponry into other Eastern European states.
While kowtowing (under the disastrous duo Osborne and Cameron) to (totalitarian ,communist, atheist) China and its investment in British IT, education and power supply we went out of our way to provoke (Christian, western oriented, capitalist) Russia, accommodating sundry spies and crooked Russian oligarchs on the run from their tax obligations.
Just what a mess British foreign policy is in we can see from the latest moves on Iran sanctions. The UK has joined the EU to set up an alternative to the SWIFT trade payments system. https://theduran.com/trump-to-unleash-hell-on-europe-eu-announces-channel-to-circumvent-swift-and-iran-sanctions-is-now-operational/ . The resulting “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” will allow EU countries to circumvent US sanctions on Iran.
So we elaborately avoid US sanctions on Iran, a Russian ally, while maintaining sanctions on Russia. As we leave the EU we help German and French industry to profit from avoiding sanctions applied by the USA our closest ally! The JCPOA will almost certainly bring retaliation from the USA. A better example of the distortion of British international interests by our uncritical allegiance to “Europe” would be hard to find.
GOING BEHIND OUR BACKS
Freenations reported back in 2017 http://freenations.net/helmut-kohl-dead-but-euro-corporatists-secretly-attack-britain/ how EU corporations and EU Commissioners had been badmouthing Britain in Russia. They accused us of “betraying European values” saying that “Europe is better off without Britain”. My Russian friend reported they were “really seeding Anglophobia”. His friend at the Russian foreign office reported that when an EU delegation led by Frederica Mogherini was in Moscow “the entire EU delegation was sending veiled signals to curb Britain”. Foreign Minister Lavrov was disgusted by their antics. Not that the grotesque Theresa May regime would have appreciated that Russian defence of Britain – she preferred to embrace our EU detractors!
So we now find that our so called allies and “partners” in the EU are going behind the backs of the Europhile Foreign Office and Downing Street hawks and increasingly accommodating Russia.
Perhaps the most heinous example is the agreement between Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Maros Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission for the Energy Union to set up a working group to bypass the US Dollar in EU/Russia trade. Although I am afraid the incessant use of the power of the US Dollar and banking system for foreign policy ends was bound to backfire eventually it is an extreme irony that our “European partners” are now joining Russia (on whom they applied comprehensive sanctions) to weaken the currency of our closest ally.
And this potential agreement on currency payments is likely to lead to more trade as Siluanov and Sefcovic also discussed greater involvement of European businesses in Russian projects, an improved investment climate in Russia and more trade!
ITALY OBJECTS TO RUSSIA SANCTIONS
The Italian economy has suffered more than most from sanctions as Russia retaliated and Italian exports to Russia declined. The Italian PM Matteo Salvini recently said of Russian sanctions:
“I continue to believe that we don’t need sanctions. The issue of their removal unites all decent people.“
Another win for Russia came as The Council Of Europe agreed to restore Russia’s voting rights having suspended them over Crimea.
GERMANY
A majority of Germans in a recent survey rejected the idea that their country should meet the 2% of GDP spending on defence. German spending is set to stay at 1.5% up to 2024. 69% of Germans wanted more co-operation with Russia and only 35% more cooperation with the USA! A majority also said they would not defend Poland or the Baltic States against a Russian attack!
No wonder the recent British led “Baltic Protector” mission involving Finland, Sweden Denmark and other Baltic States did not see any participation from Germany the largest Baltic State! Germany has also decided not to buy the US produced F35 stealth multi roll aircraft.
And of course it was at the very least embarrassing when the USA, having expelled 60 Russians over the Skripal affair found that France and Germany were each expelling only four Russians each.
The German magazine Der Spiegel recently reported that, “German investments in Russia have reached record levels” and continue to grow despite the sanctions.
A further bone of contention between German Europe’s interests and that of the USA is the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which will double the existing capacity of the Nord Stream pipeline from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany (inaugurated in 2011)
Nord Stream 2 has been opposed by the United States and several Eastern European countries because it bypasses Eastern Europe and provides considerable revenues for Russia. On the other hand gas security is critical not just for the EU but also for the UK (there are already threats from the EU that after Brexit gas to the UK could be rationed). It is not in our interests to see the EU 27 short of gas and Russia directing ever more of its gas exports to China.
SYRIA
With the UK and US policy in Syria (all part of the Obama instigated “Arab Spring” destabilisation of the Middle East) now an abject failure it is Russian policy which has triumphed. And – surprise surprise! we saw in October 2018 NATO “Allies” France and Germany rushing to Syria to hold hands with Turkey’s President Erdogan and Russia’s Vladimir Putin and announce a plan for the future of Syria to be “facilitated by the United Nations”.
Once again I am afraid the political logic is sound – as the UK/USA interventions proved so calamitous. But once again we see a certain duplicity from our NATO allies and EU “partners”. Here as elsewhere they parade their supranational systems but in fact ruthlessly pursue nationalistic ambitions. If those interests contradict those of the UK and the USA they are not too worried!
TRUMP AND JOHNSON NOT OBAMA AND MAY
So what of the future? Will UK and US foreign policy continue to be messy? Brexit is critical – as is a new British Prime Minister.
The members of the European Union and our principal European NATO allies have shown themselves to be unreliable at best when it comes to foreign policy. 90% of the disastrous US foreign policy blunders are the result of Neocon and Democon imperialist ideas and London’s Russo-phobic hysteria rather than the present US President – although Iran is perhaps the exception where the US State establishment and Donald Trump are at one.
Prime Minister in waiting Johnson and Donald Trump see the world in a similar light. They are capable of a rapprochement with Russia. Mrs May’s ill tempered attack on Vladimir Putin at the recent summit was petulant and foolish – as indeed was much of UK foreign policy under her Premiership. May perpetually lectured others asserting that Britain is a major power – on the other hand she was determined to bind us as a weak appendage to the European Superstate.
It is time for a change. Matters cannot get worse.
