Despite transatlantic 'love fest', EU charts third way in ties with US and China
But two senior envoys who attended said there was no direct response from the ministers gathered in Brussels when Blinken said: "We must push back on China together and show strength in unity."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's first videoconference with European Union foreign ministers last month was so good humoured that some diplomats in Europe described it as a "love fest".
But two senior envoys who attended said there was no direct response from the ministers gathered in Brussels when Blinken said: "We must push back on China together and show strength in unity."
Their reticence is partly due to an unwillingness to commit to anything until Washington spells out more fully its China policy under President Joe Biden.
But the ministers were also cautious because the EU is looking for a strategic balance in relations with Beijing and Washington that ensures the bloc is not so closely allied with one of the world's two big powers that it alienates the other.
The EU also hopes to have enough independence from Washington and Beijing to be able on its own to deepen ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific region such as India, Japan and Australia, EU officials said.
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In a new departure for the EU, they said, the bloc hopes to agree a plan next month that involves a larger and more assertive security presence in the Indo-Pacific, and more development aid, trade and diplomacy.
"We are charting a third way between Washington and Beijing," an EU envoy in Asia said.
Another EU official in Asia expressed concern that the United States had "a hawkish agenda against China, which is not our agenda".
**'EUROPE ROADSHOW'
**Last month's videoconference was part of an attempt under Biden to rebuild alliances neglected by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who had an antagonistic relationship with both the EU and China.
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The White House has embarked on a "Europe roadshow", a senior U.S. official said, and is in daily contact with European governments about China's rising power, in "a sustained effort for ... a high degree of coordination and cooperation in a number of areas."
In a sign that the U.S. push on China is having an impact, Germany plans to send a frigate in August to Asia and across the South China Sea, where Beijing has military outposts on artificial islands, senior government officials told Reuters.
The EU is also set to sanction four Chinese officials and one entity - with travel bans and asset freezes - on March 22 over human rights abuses in China's Uighur Muslim minority, diplomats said.