TOKYO:
Mainichi Shinbun, (centrist) June 16:
It would probably be rash to label this diplomatic tour a failure.
The durability of [America's] relationship [with Europe] is
built upon a history and knowledge deepened…through compromise,
amidst unreserved criticisms and differing opinions. This is
the beginning of such a dialogue, just part of a long process.
MEXICO CITY: Marco Appel,
Milenio (weekly newsmagazine), June 18:
What has been confirmed once again is that the European
Union is anything but a union in political terms. It reacts
like an epileptic body....France and Germany were relentless
in their criticism, while Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom (which
see a loss of influence with the expansion of the European Union),
Poland, and Hungary (which are fighting for leadership of Central
Europe) took a much less belligerent, and sometimes even complaisant,
posture.…Bush took some pressure off the mutual hostility with
the Europeans, and even outlined a pro-U.S. alliance with right-wing
José María Aznar's government in Spain and Silvio Berlusconi's
in Italy, while strengthening the United State's traditional
alliance with the United Kingdom.
BELGRADE: The Weekly
Reporter (independent), June 20:
Armed with excellent advisors and a bad knowledge of geography
and language, U.S. President George Bush has "occupied"
Europe. One can only guess why the president chose to go to
Spain first. [Probably because] he speaks Spanish, or believed
he did before he went to Spain, and because the government in
Madrid leans right, so it seemed a safe place to start. As far
as Bush's other stops were concerned, there were many stumbles.
In Brussels, he failed to calm down allies who were ready to
form their own military forces. In Gothenburg, he failed to
moderate his position about the Kyoto Protocols on reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
LONDON: The Guardian (liberal),
June 19:
Europeans can indeed now see Mr. Bush for what he is: the affable,
inflexible frontman for a right-wing business, political, and
military alliance intent on pursuing the logic of solo superpower
to its domineering conclusion. This administration really does
seem to believe it can have it all. Perhaps, in time, it will
learn differently—for Mr. Bush's simplistic, lopsided global
view conceals a basic lack of common sense and understanding.
Just as slippery Mr. Putin will not be deflected by American
hardball and soft soap, so must EU states also stand up for
what they believe. In supposedly moving to redress the balance
of the new world, George Bush, like George Canning with his
wires crossed, inadvertently challenges the old world to rise
again.
INVERCARGILL, NEW ZEALAND: The
Southland Times (centrist), June 18:
U.S. President George W. Bush flew home smiling after his first
major diplomatic assignment, but he can be under no illusions
his European honeymoon will last forever. The U.S. leader has
Russian President Vladimir Putin to thank for his good mood.
The leaders of the two former superpower enemies walked away
from their ice-breaking first meeting in Slovenia with their
limited expectations exceeded. The leaders parted having agreed
to start talks on what Mr. Bush described as a "new security
framework" and with invitations for more one-on-one meetings.
But Mr. Bush's description of his whirlwind, five-day, five
country European tour as "mission accomplished" is
premature, even naïve. "Mission begun" would seem
a more accurate assessment.
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BEIJING:
Jiao Xiaoyang, China Daily (government-owned), June 19:
U.S.
President George W. Bush's European debut last week may leave
him with an unpleasant aftertaste, at least as far as [conversations
about] the Kyoto Protocol are concerned. Shortly after Bush
left Europe, European Union leaders agreed on Saturday to ratify
the 1997 Kyoto Protocol by the end of this year, a move that
has clearly sidelined the United States.
LONDON: The Guardian (liberal), June 19:
We are moving into a very dangerous period in the Atlantic relationship,
as the United States looks increasingly west and Europe increasingly
east. It will be all too easy to let these tensions degenerate
into a popular mood which is dismissive and impatient with Europe
on the U.S. side of the Atlantic and slips into raw anti-Americanism
on ours. All too easy—but profoundly dangerous.
DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND: The Otago Daily Times (conservative),
June 20: The cruelly and unfairly labeled "global village
idiot" not only passed through Europe without major gaffes,
but most importantly, he affirmed his nation's continued involvement
in interests and security. While the current strains on European
unity were plain to see, Mr. Bush's views and commitments were
much more straightforward. He has committed his administration
to leading an expanded NATO, and he made a promising beginning
with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
TOKYO: The Asahi Shimbun
(liberal), June 22:
The United States, of course, is not always right in its actions.
It has a propensity to turn its back on international cooperation
and pursue a unilateralist path. Europe apparently intends to
keep warning the United States about such behavior….For underneath
the seemingly strained relationship between the United States
and Europe is a mature diplomatic exchange.
MEXICO CITY: Angel Guerra Cabrera,
La Jornada (leftist) June 21:
George W. Bush's highly publicized tour through the old continent
and his attendance at the European summit at Gothenburg, Sweden,
confirm three things. First, the struggle among the major poles
of power in the world is far from remaining a simple memory
from the days of the Cold War. Second, the United States persists
in acting shamelessly outside international law, now that the
contention with the Soviet bloc no longer exists. Thirdly—and
perhaps the most important strategically—anti-capitalist
popular resistance is increasing despite the end of "real"
socialism and the crisis in the old Left.
WARSAW: Tomasz Lis, Wprost
(weekly newsmagazine) June 24:
[The European] approach to the new president is schizophrenic.
On one hand, Europeans accuse his administration of being too
self-centered, and on the other, they accuse him of playing
the global bully. France, always ready to complain about America,
has called the U.S. a hyper-power. In Poland, Western Europe's
anti-Americanism seems incomprehensible….
Why this allergic reaction to Bush? It's simple: the leftist
establishment in most European countries hates him. How not
to hate someone who thinks that the state is the source of problems
instead of an aid in solving them, who is not obsessed with
ecology, who calls himself a born-again Christian, and who,
when asked who has had the biggest influence on his life, unhesitatingly
responds, "Jesus Christ?" [Bush in fact described Jesus Christ
as the political philosopher who had the biggest influence on
him —WPR.] Bush has the misfortune that for the
first time since the end of the cold war, the Right rules America
and the Left rules the majority of European countries.
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