The European Union (EU) has just celebrated its 50th anniversary of its with grandiose functions as well as a gathering of leaders in Germany, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is to usher in its 58th birthday on April 4. What are the respective roles of NATO and EU and what are trends with their development in the years ahead. On these issues of common concern, Zheng Xing and Jin Yanbo, both sub-editors of the People's Daily Overseas Edition, have conversed with Yang Yu, director of the EU Affairs Office of elite Nanjing University in east China's Jiangsu Province, Prof. Wu Yikang with the World Economy Institute of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Shen Jiru, a researcher of the Institute of World Economies and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The detailed account of the conversation is read as follows:

Q. Most of the member states of the NATO and EU belong to the Europe. NATO has 21 EU member nations out of its present 26 membership, so both organizations have most of their mutually shared members. Then, what are differences between the organizations?

Shen Jiru (abbreviated as Shen below): The NATO, established in April 1949, originally had 15 member states and a headquarters in Brussels. It has been a military bloc headed by the United States, and a product of confrontation between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War period. And the EU is an organization of regional integration of European nations. To date, it has been advancing its regional integration with their economic and monetary union development and European political integration cooperation.

Yang Yu (abbreviated as Yang below): During the cold war years, NATO was a tool used by the U.S. to materialize its global strategy as well as a collective defense organization of a military nature to confront and contain the Warsaw Pact Organization. It was not only a product of East-West confrontation but embodied the interests and resolve of the U.S. It was also a product of the European union and integration in the post-World War II years and a peace plan designed and practiced to cope with frictions or internal wars inside the Europe that have harassed its unity and peaceful development for so long, and particularly old hatreds or scores between France and Germany that have existed for centuries.

Wu Yikang (abbreviated as Wu below): NATO is a military bloc employed by the U.S. to serve its global strategy and also its tool to vie with EU and proceed to divide and rule the Europe. EU, however, is a combination body of sovereign states designed to construct a brand-new Europe. So there is a world of differences between them in term of character, task, setup mechanism and ways of doing things.

Q: NATO was a product of the Cold War era, but it did not step out of the historical stage with the splitting up of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, and instead carried out its enlargement eastward. Then what is the reason for its continuous existence?

Yang: NATO would have been dissolved with the end of the Cold War, but the reality is not so. A summit meeting of the North Atlantic Council, Washing D.C. in April 1999 set forth a concept of a new strategy gearing to the new century. With consolidation of a strong independence force, a pure military-political organization was transferred to a political-military organization. The strategic goal of "collective defense" was changed over to a given balance between "collective defense" and "crise management", and the security of alliance has to be considered under the global framework. So the mission of the era and reason for its continuous existence have been verified.

Wu: The existence of its continuous existence is also ascribed to the fear and suspicions of numerous European nations for the nuclear power of Russia, and the eastward enlargement and the attempt to extend the scope of its defense affairs also give expressions to the enduring Cold War shadows. The complexity of the situation adds uncertainty to the relations between the U.S. and Russia and between Europe and Russia and, with upheavals wrought by "color revolutions" occasionally in the eastern region of the former Soviet Union, there is an ensuing hidden danger for the intensification of US-Russian contradictions.

Shen: First of all, this is a need for the U.S. to defend its global hegemony. The U.S., through the eastern enlargement of the NATO, attempts to penetrate its forces into the former Soviet republics in Central Asia to encircle Russia from its southern arc cycle and exert pressures onto China from West and North. Meanwhile, it attempts to link NATO with the Japan-US Security Treaty and the US-Australia-New Zealand Alliance. Furthermore, most of the NATO members still need to ally with the U.S. and hinges on NATO to back themselves up to increase its weight and influence in global affairs due to a slow progress in the process of the EU political integration.

Q: EU is a cooperative partner whereas NATO is rival or adversary to a certain country, but both organizations have shared most same member nations, and what the two organization have diametrically opposed significance to another country?

Wu: A certain country, here I suppose, refers to Russia, which takes EU as its vital and crucial cooperative partner. Bother sides intend to carry out active cooperation in economy, trade, security and a range of other cooperative spheres. Russia, however, has a growing aversion to the eastern enlargement of NATO and even denounced it openly. Its acknowledgement of and attitude toward the two organizations are determined by the character and purpose of the two organizations.

Shen: The EU nations, with "a dread off Russia, chimed in with the NATO eastern enlargement strategy of the U.S. Russia is, however, concerned more about its immediate interests despite its resolute opposition to the encirclement, isolation and coercion by NATO and, likewise, EU also cares very much for its energy "card" and missile "card". Hence, in spite of the US trying endeavor to coerce and suppress Russia with the help of EU nations, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and other EU nations do not have an implicit faith in the U.S., and so EU nations are no longer counted as its "little partners" as a whole.

Yang: NATO still has relatively "strong hues" of the Cold War era following its shift to the post-Cold War era after 1999, as its reorganization was directed or orchestrated by the U.S., and it remained a US tool to seek global hegemony after being retooled. In contrast, EU, in a certain sense, resembles all the more like an economic community. To a certain country, EU is more like a strategic partner rather than a vying adversary in view of its immense economic potential and its subtle and delicate ties with the U.S.

Q. Along with the steady uplifting in the strength of the EU itself, is it possible for the European nations to develop their European affairs and bypass the NATO, and what are development trends of NATO and EU in European affairs?

Shen: With its membership increasing to 27, the EU is still faced with a multitude of difficulties to its political integration resultant from its excessive enlargement. Referenda in both France and the Netherlands vetoed the draft EU charter not long ago imply a lot of hurdles yet to overcome with respect to the uniform diplomacy and defense policies of the E.U. Consequently, it is still hard for EU to replace the armed forces of NATO with its own force in a foreseeable future.

Wu: At present, the common security and defense policies for EU is in the making, and preparations for the EU Rapid Reaction Force is well under way, and the enlargement renders EU's peacekeeping mission with greater radius over the Balkan, Africa, Afghanistan, the Middle-east, the Trans-Caucasus and other regions. Furthermore, EU nations have stepped up their cooperation in war industry, military weaponry manufacturing and military researches among themselves. Nevertheless, a few member nations propose turning to NATO to enhance the European defense matters. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open appeal to founding a joint EU armed force represents a positive trend.

Yang: With a strengthening of the strong independence force for EU and an estrangement of the US involvement, the EU will have a capacity to meet the goals pursued by Europeans incessantly for the control of crises and to perform peacekeeping and rescue operations. Consequently, with a continuous uplifting of the economic and military might of EU, remarkable changes are expected to occur in the EU-NATO ties and somewhat lessen the American factor in the European affairs.

By People's Daily Online