Why Asia needs to worry about transatlantic tensions

TRANSATLANTIC tensions such as problems in Nato and US-EU tariff wars often make headlines these days. These are issues that people in Asia need to worry about more, because transatlantic tensions do affect Asia. We cannot be indifferent to the state of the relationship between the United States and Europe for three reasons.

First, those who share fundamental values like freedom, human rights and democracy need to worry about the decline of Nato's credibility. US President Donald Trump keeps criticising Nato and has threatened to leave the alliance. The situations in Europe and Asia are certainly different. However, if an American president tells Asians that "we will not help Europe, but are certainly committed to defending Asia", could that be credible? The answer is clearly no.

If the credibility of Nato is declining, it needs to be seen as a symptom of a broader trend of the erosion of US willingness to defend its allies, inevitably affecting Asia as well. That is why Asians should not indulge in schadenfreude - rejoicing at other people's misfortune - regarding Nato's problems.