Nicolas Sarkozy was the President of France from 2007 to 2012. Today in Spain, Sarkozy said world axis is shifting from “the West to the East” and Europe is no longer the centre of the world due to demographic reasons. He said ‘Trump not the cause of the collapse of the West, but a sign of it’.
Sarkozy said Europe and the West are heading toward collapse and called on political parties to stop watching and take action. Europe’s overaged politicians should stop “obsessing” with the past and focus on the future.
He stressed that the world is moving at a great speed and the EU alone cannot cope with Brexit, Russia, terrorism, and cybersecurity. ‘It is best to rebuild and reshape NATO’. The conservative and democratic liberals in Europe ‘lost the fight’ describing Brexit as a dramatic event that goes against history and is a madness.
Earlier this year, French President Emmanuel Macron has penned a letter urging European civilization to ‘reinvent’. He said we can’t sleepwalk to a diminished Europe.
But neither leaders pointed out that the reason for collapse are ‘selfish’ policies of the West/US in the Middle East. The US/EU sided with the strong at the expense of the weak. The continuous wars in Middle East, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and many other countries led to anti US/EU sentiments among the sufferers. The ruling elites and ordinary people in the Middle East/Africa were looking for an alternative to US & EU hegemony.
In 2013, Mahathir Mohammad of Malaysia requested Chinese President Xi Jinping to start Silk Road to avoid congestion in Malacca Sea route. President Xi had seen this opportunity to expand Chinese influence in the Middle East and Africa through expansion of Silk Road to Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and military base in Djibouti. In July 2018, Xi pledged multi-billion dollar in loans for economic development to Arab states and $45 billion to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Both China and Russia have benefited from the anti-US & West sentiment in the Middle East/Africa. The solution of global problems requires leadership which President Xi provided to Central Asia/Middle East/ Africa. Now it is very difficult to completely dissuade the Middle East or African countries from China.