Nothing brings warring parties together like a good villain. Diplomats, particularly American and European diplomats, know this. “If you bicker about certain things, let’s bring in China, or Russia, or whatever bad guys there are,” one told us recently.
Which is exactly what Europe is trying to do with the incoming Biden administration. There’s been talk of the importance of increasing co-operation on China policy from both European capitals and the Biden team for some time now, and the latest iteration of that is the European Commission’s flashy new plan to repair ties with Washington. (The transatlantic relationship, the commission says delicately in the document, is in need of some “maintenance and renewal”).
It’s certainly worth Europe pushing on the White House’s soon-to-be-ajar door. There are clearly areas where the US and Europe can co-operate. Competition from China is a major problem that both sides have. The Biden campaign has said it wants to strengthen co-ordination on screening foreign investments and improve the sharing of intelligence on commercial threats. Parties on both sides of the Atlantic also think there is more to be done to protect emerging technologies with national security implications.