SHANGHAI, February 16. /TASS/. European countries yield to pressure from the United States because they are unable to counter it given their dependence on Washington, Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs and the Center for European Studies at Renmin University of China, told TASS.
"No matter how the United States pressures and humiliates Europe with a carrot-and-stick approach, it is still willing to remain deceived," the expert said, commenting on the Munich Security Conference. "Why is this happening? Because Europeans cannot cope in Ukraine, they are afraid of Russia and constantly beg the United States - their ’daddy’ - for help," he added.
Wang Yiwei said transatlantic ties would be more accurately compared not to relations between spouses but between parents and children. According to him, the United States in turn wants to "wean Europe off," so that it does not become a burden.
"Europe cannot even control the course of the war taking place there; at present it is essentially paying for everything and receiving no respect from the United States. This is the price Europe pays for its dependence on Washington," Wang said.
He said the European Union was an economic power, but in the digital era its strength increasingly depended on the United States. "They do not have their own technological giant in artificial intelligence; Europeans use American search engines and operating systems, so Europe’s dependence on the United States is not decreasing but rising," Wang added.
The professor said the United States was still trying to suppress Europe. "First, it destroyed its sense of security and the illusion of the so-called transatlantic alliance, and then it began attempts to create and reshape the so-called Western civilization, forming a narrative about the global East, the global West and the global South," the expert said.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the Munich Security Conference that the United States did not want weak allies unable to defend themselves. Washington needed partners who shared the same heritage as Americans and would be able to safeguard it, Rubio said, addressing Europeans.