David Miliband: Europe and US need ‘separate bedrooms’ but not divorce | David Miliband
Europe should have “separate bedrooms” from the US but not seek to “divorce” its traditional alliance, David Miliband has said, despite the Trump administration’s influence on the relationship.
The former Labor foreign secretary, who has served as chairman of the International Rescue Committee since 2013, told the Hay literary festival on Sunday: “You can see the argument that strategic autonomy for Europe means a divorce from the US. I really recommend the dangers of that.”
“They might have separate bedrooms. Divorce, no. Because there’s a huge potential for us to be in a very, very difficult situation if we choose the divorce option.”
When asked what this meant in practice, Miliband joked that Europe also needed “separate bank accounts” and said it needed to develop “agency” when it came to the economy and military. This is difficult “when it comes to the fighter jets you buy, the planes you buy (whether you buy European or American) and also “in the field of artificial intelligence, where what it means to be digitally dominant is very, very challenging.”
“The climate issue is a good example of where we cannot afford to stand back in the face of the fact that America is turning upside down. Along with the environmental interest in Europe, a huge economic interest is absolutely at the forefront,” Miliband said.
Creating wealth and distributing it fairly is “fundamental” to addressing Europe’s political and military “weaknesses,” he added, noting the fact that the US’s GDP per capita is nominally nearly twice that of Europe.
Miliband spoke at a panel hosted by author and lawyer Philippe Sands and philosopher Susan Neiman, and chaired by Misha Glenny, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time.
Sands said the UK-US relationship was “one-way”. “Let’s not fool ourselves.” He said Britain was “much more dependent” on the US. “What we’ve learned over the last few years is that it’s time to think about what we need.” He said Britain’s “primary link” was with Europe and we should move in that direction.
But Sands added that Britain “will not be seen as a reliable partner” by France. “There is a lot of work to be done with Macron or anyone who follows Macron.”
Britain “needs to find a way to reconnect with the European Union economically, politically, diplomatically and militarily,” he said. “There are lots of different ways to do this, and whoever is the British prime minister in the next year or two needs to spend a lot of time working with France to find ways to make it easier for this to happen.”
Glenny said Brexit showed other EU member states “what breaking with 40 years of regulatory alignment actually means for your economy – it’s disastrous one way or another.”
On Saturday, Miliband called for “national consensus” on the UK’s stance on rejoining the EU. His intervention follows a Guardian report on Friday that a Cabinet Office official suggested creating a single market for goods with the EU but was rejected by EU officials.
Asked at Saturday’s Hay event whether the rapprochement would mean voters would feel betrayed and disappointed, Miliband said he “didn’t think it honored the Brexit vote to impoverish ourselves or make us less safe. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.” The UK has now “learned a 10-year lesson about what Brexit means”.
He also touched on global conflicts, saying that the “break in the international system” represented by the war in Iran was “bigger” than the break represented by the war in Iraq. “This conflict has disrupted relations between America and Europe in a way I’ve never seen before,” he said.
