Disturbing self-centeredness

This is what we suffer from in Spain. The world faces many problems that the Covid epidemic only contributes to increase: because there is less money to combat climate change; because poverty and inequality are aggravated by the economic crisis that the virus has triggered; because cybercrime has accelerated with the changes in employment and consumption that have taken place over the last year... even Iran and North Korea feel emboldened in their nuclear and non-nuclear ambitions when the world's attention is distracted by the pandemic. All these events will have a greater or lesser impact on our lives, as does the recent blockade of the Suez Canal, although we are not aware of it here because we are distracted by the formation of another inoperative government in Catalonia, the Murcia leaks, the resignation of Pablo Iglesias from Sánchez's government, the duel announced in Madrid, the recent blockade of the Suez Canal in Spain, the recent blockade of the Suez Canal in Spain, and the recent blockade of the Suez Canal in Spain, the duel that is announced in Madrid between Díaz Ayuso and Iglesias himself, the collapse of a disoriented Ciudadanos, or the bewilderment of the citizenry in the face of seventeen different regulations to curb the pandemic while Spaniards cannot travel around our country as foreigners do.

It is understandable to a certain extent, as the Romans already knew the advantages of distracting the public with the circus, but it is a mistake because what happens outside our borders affects us more than we think, and with the governments of Rodríguez-Zapatero, Rajoy and now Sánchez, we have less and less influence in the world and also in Europe, where we allow Poland or the Netherlands to have more influence than we do. This is to be expected from a country whose Parliament only listens to insults and disqualifications of the adversary instead of discussing the most important issues on the table today: how to vaccinate the population with the utmost urgency to create a group immunity that will save the summer for the mass tourism on which our economy depends, and how to intelligently use the funds that are going to come from Europe to lay the foundations for a more competitive, less fragile, more sustainable, greener and more digital economy. But we don't talk about that here, what we talk about here is "criminal right" and "communism or freedom". And so it goes, because things continue to happen in the world even if we do not pay due attention to them.

Two events have taken place in recent days that affect the United States' relations with Russia and China and indicate where things may go in the world in the near future. And if anyone here thinks that Spain is not affected by these developments, they should take a closer look, because nothing is likely to have a greater impact on international relations in the short term.

In relation to Russia, Biden did not reject the description of Putin as a "murderer" when it was put to him on a journalist's plate, and it is not often that a head of state says something like that about another. He has done so because he believes it and for good reason when one thinks of Skripal, Navalny and so many others, and because he is irritated by the discovery of new Russian cyber meddling in the recent presidential election. (It also appears that the recent computer attack on the Spanish SEPE may well have come from Russian hackers, although the CNI has no evidence of any official involvement). Biden has spent much of his political life in an atmosphere of cold war and confrontation with the USSR and sees Russia as a security threat to the US and Europe, where it has already made a few swipes at Georgia, Ukraine and Crimea in flagrant violation of the borders recognised in the Helsinki Final Act. By his words Biden has told Putin that the tolerance shown by Trump over the past four years is over and hard to explain.

In relation to China, the recent meeting in Alaska between the Chinese and Americans, described as "frank" by Secretary of State Tony Blinken and "constructive... although there are still differences" on the Chinese side (in diplomacy these comments mean that everything was said during the meeting), shows that difficult times lie ahead because the Americans see China as a threat to their supremacy (and this is one of the few things that Democrats and Republicans agree on), while the Chinese think that the Americans want to block their way to becoming a great world power. Both are probably right and this means that there will be no change in the short term, that the stakes are still high and that the next few years are predicted to be years of intense competition that will affect the entire planet and for which we must prepare ourselves because what is at stake are two antagonistic models of organising global governance.

At the moment there has been a worrying rapprochement between China and Russia, united in their perception of suffering American grievances, to which we should pay special attention. But we don't hear about it here, because we prefer the goyesque duels with batons that are being prepared in Madrid and are already taking place in Catalonia.

Jorge Dezcallar/Ambassador of Spain.