Ukraine War: NATO vows to improvove air defenses Ukraine

NATO members and allies meeting in Brussels on Wednesday are likely to focus on providing additional air defence systems to Ukraine, the U.S. ambassador to NATO said.

Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/news/archive/worldNews

EU-China Relations: Taking the EU reins, Slovenia plans to press ahead on China investment deal

Slovenia will press on with completing the EU’s troubled investment deal with China as it assumes the presidency of the Council of the European Union today.

The presidency rotates among EU member states and is responsible for the functioning of the council, the EU’s co-legislative body alongside the European Parliament.

Read more at: Taking the EU reins, Slovenia plans to press ahead on China investment deal | South China Morning Post

US Economy- Forecast: oecd-doubles-us-economic-growth-forecast

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has more than doubled its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the US economy since making its last projections in December. At that time, the OECD said it expected real GDP growth of 3.2% in the US in 2021, but now it expects the US economy to grow 6.5% this year.

If its current predictions are accurate, it would be only the second time since 1966 that US GDP growth exceeded 6%, following behind 1984 when GDP growth was a red-hot 7.2%.

Read More at: ai-cio.com/news/oecd-doubles-us-economic-growth-forecast/

EU Regulations: Making EU regulation better for all –by Isabelle Schömann

The European Union is built on fundamental principles of human rights and democracy. Its treaties set out the objectives of a highly competitive social-market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, with protection and amelioration of the environment and an assault on social exclusion.

But such progress is not guaranteed: it depends on sound laws and regulations, which must be elaborated in an objective and transparent way and then consistently enforced. That is why the European Trade Union Confederation is actively involved in developing EU legislation and, having recently passing a resolution on better regulation for all, has launched a discussion with the European institutions.

Read more at: Making EU regulation better for all – Isabelle Schömann

Economics: China Has a Few Things to Teach the U.S. Economy - by Noah Smith

Ever since China’s spectacular economic growth became apparent in the 2000s, people have wondered whether that country’s brand of authoritarian state capitalism has proven superior to the more liberal American model. Until recently, it was possible to dismiss those concerns, but Chinese successes and U.S. failures keep piling up. If the U.S. wants to maintain both its relative power and its prestige as a model for the world, it needs to make some big adjustments.

Read more at: China Has a Few Things to Teach the U.S. Economy - Bloomberg

EU-US Relations: A Biden Victory Could Reset Transatlantic Relations : by Alex Soros

NEW YORK – In his opening address to the European Council on Foreign Relations’ (ECFR) annual meeting, German Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas claimed that regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election this November, Europeans “will have to think about how to better contain the conflicts in Europe’s vicinity, even without the US.”

His view is a popular one. Many European pundits, such as Janan Ganesh and Wolfgang Münchau of the Financial Times, have argued that US-EU relations would not change significantly even if a Democrat were to defeat US President Donald Trump. A Democratic president, the argument goes, would still be protectionist on trade, sympathetic to the American public’s supposed isolationist instincts, and equally unenthusiastic about writing checks to defend Europe. This description was initially applied to Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, despite their strong support for international cooperation and human rights. Now some Europeans are extending it to Joe Biden.

But the idea that Biden would bring no real change to US policy toward Europe beggars belief. Biden has always been a staunch transatlanticist, and over the course of his decades-long political career, he has forged close relationships with key European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. As vice president from 2009 to 2017, Biden was always available to provide personal diplomacy when President Barack Obama was not.

While European pundits are correct to doubt that the old transatlantic alliance will simply return to its pre-Trump state, they are underestimating what a Biden victory would mean for US foreign policy. The Democratic Party is still a party of values, and a Biden administration would pursue a full reset after four years of Trump, restoring America’s historic commitment to responsible leadership on the world stage

Whereas Trump has spent his time in office starting fights with Europe over climate change, trade, and human rights, Biden would bring America back to the diplomatic table. The United States would rejoin the Paris climate agreement, pursue new trade deals, and participate in cooperative efforts to ensure that technological innovation conforms with human-rights standards.

In the European Union, America’s image is at an all-time low, thanks to the Trump administration’s slow, incoherent, and ineffective response to the COVID-19 crisis, a major part of which comprised blaming other countries, rather than cooperating with them. Instead of combating the crisis using the resources of the World Health Organization and other multilateral organizations, the US banned travel from Europe without warning and announced it would defund the WHO. One of Biden’s first foreign-policy objectives will surely be to rectify this and to treat COVID-19 as the global crisis it is. That means leveraging international cooperation to protect Americans from the pandemic (and its attendant economic devastation), as well as lead global efforts to combat the threat.

With Biden in the White House, European telecoms like Nokia and Ericsson would be recognized and supported as the transatlantic alliance’s 5G champions, and the US would help Europe wean itself off Russian gas as it works toward its clean-energy transition. A Biden administration also would recognize the wisdom of negotiating a renewal of the New START nuclear-weapons treaty with Russia when it expires in 2021. And it would pursue other forms of arms control to advance European and US security interests and prevent a new arms race.

More to the point, a Biden administration would uphold its end of any bargain, and would be trusted to maintain America’s commitments to partners and allies around the world. The only question is whether Europe, too, would be prepared to make the tough choices needed to reinvigorate the alliance.

Trump has allowed Europe to avoid such choices, because his outlandish behavior has distracted attention from most other issues. For example, with all eyes on the intensifying Sino-American feud, the EU has become more accommodating to China. In early June, Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, declared that Europe does not regard China as a military threat. And while US political leaders from both parties have loudly condemned China’s imposition of a new security law in Hong Kong, the EU’s reaction has been relatively meek.

Lest we forget, the EU is the world’s largest trading bloc. With enough determination, Europe, working closely with the US, could have considerable leverage when it comes to promoting a rules-based multilateral system. But to do so, it will have to expend political and diplomatic capital.

Read the complete report at: 
A Biden Victory Could Reset Transatlantic Relations by Alex Soros - Project Syndicate