By Dr. Sawraj Singh

          When Joe Biden became President, he reassured Europe that he is going to reverse Trump's policy of tilting toward Asia-Pacific, and will revive the traditional American policy of considering Europe as the most important ally of America. However, the recent American actions completely belie America's assertions. America has just announced a trilateral security alliance, AUKUS, with the UK and Australia. The first action taken by this group is the shocking betrayal of France. Australia is scrapping a 43-billion-dollar nuclear submarine deal with France, and the US will now share its nuclear-powered submarine technology with Australia.                                                                                                                                           

Senior officials in Paris were outraged and accused the US of betrayal. It seems that Biden has delivered a fatal blow to the Trans-Atlantic Alliance. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stated that this unilateral, brutal and unpredictable decision was very similar to what Mr. Trump was doing. This American policy makes it clear that while taking on its main adversary, China, Europe has been sidelined and left out. Europe has been down-graded as America is declaring that Asia-Pacific has become the most important area for it as far as its struggle to maintain its superpower status while its power and influence are generally perceived as declining. However, it continues to deceive Europe by pretending that it considers Europe as its main ally in the world.                                                                                               

            America has tried to sabotage the lucrative deals that Europe was making with China by bringing up Trans-Atlantism. The EU and China had sealed a deal on a comprehensive investment agreement that would give European firms better access to China's markets than what the US had. However, the US made a lot of noise about Trans-Atlantic solidarity. The US persuaded Europe in siding with it on the issue of human rights violations in Xinjiang. This provoked a response from China and eventually led to freezing of the deal by the EU.      

America has pressured Europe to cancel the Nord Stream 2 pipeline even when there is a tremendous shortage of gas in Europe. If Russia stops exporting gas to Europe, then Europe can freeze. However, America makes decisions that are in its own interest and completely disregards European interests. Europe is feeling cheated, bullied, humiliated and betrayed by America. How long such an alliance can last? Sooner or later, Europe has to accept the reality that America has shifted the focus of its foreign policy to the Asia-Pacific region and the talk of Trans-Atlantic Alliance is sham.                                               

            Europe should make its own deals with China and Russia and try to protect its own core interests. Europe should also accept the fact that America is no longer the mighty superpower it used to be. Just look at the humiliating defeat it suffered in Afghanistan and the way Joe Biden was snubbed by Xi Jinping when he repeatedly asked about a summit between the two. Europe should wake up to the fact that the unipolar world under American hegemony has already become multipolar.                           

            Some people are concerned about the counter measures that China can take like giving nuclear technology to countries such as North Korea and Iran, and that can seriously threaten security of American allies like Japan, Australia and Israel. Some people are even concerned that China may misread the AUKUS as F**KUS.                                                                                                                                                    

The announcement of the AUKUS alliance a few days before the summit of the Quad should also send a signal to India that America has reduced the importance of the Quadrilateral alliance of India, Japan, Australia and the US. This comes after the rude awakening of India in Afghanistan where America made a deal with the Taliban completely disregarding India's interests in Afghanistan.                                                            

            India has to seriously reconsider its foreign policy. India abandoned its non-alignment policy and tilted toward America instead of its time-tested friend, Russia. The time has come for India to revive its time-tested friendship with Russia and come back to the Eurasian fold. 

 Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at sawrajsingh@hotmail.com.