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Kishore Mahbubani: Time for Europe to Do the Unthinkable. Last week, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, stated that Europe would not be part of Ukraine peace talks. Clearly, if European countries do not change their slavish loyalty to Washington, they will be left at the kids’ table in the international system. 基肖爾‧馬凱碩：歐洲是時候做出不可思議的事情了。上週，川普的烏克蘭特使基斯‧凱洛格表示，歐洲不會參與烏克蘭和談。顯然，如果歐洲國家不改變對華盛頓的奴性忠誠，他們將被留在國際體系的兒童餐桌上. February 21, 2025

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And as my geopolitical gurus taught me, one must always think the unthinkable, as Europe must do now.

It’s too early to tell who the real winners and losers from the second Trump administration will be. Things could change. Yet, there’s no doubt that Europe’s geopolitical standing has diminished considerably. U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to not even consult with or forewarn European leaders before speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin shows how irrelevant Europe has become, even when its geopolitical interests are at stake. The only way to restore Europe’s geopolitical standing is to consider three unthinkable options.

First, Europe should announce its willingness to quit NATO. A Europe that is forced to spend 5 percent on defense is a Europe that doesn’t need the United States. Five percent of the combined EU/U.K. GDP in 2024 amounts to $1.1 trillion, comparable to U.S. defense spending of $824 billion in 2024 (In 2024, the EU and U.K. combined spent around $410 billion on defense.). Eventually, Europe need not quit. But only a credible threat to leave would wake up Trump (and Vice President J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth) and force him to treat Europe with respect. By contrast, the insistence of the Europeans on staying in NATO after Trump’s provocative actions gives the impression to the world that they are licking the boots that are kicking them in the face.

What shocks many in the world is that Europeans didn’t anticipate the quagmire they’re in. One of the first rules of geopolitics is that we must always plan against worst-case scenarios. After the Ukraine war broke out, all European strategic thinking was based on the best-case scenario of the United States being a totally reliable ally, despite having experienced Trump’s first term and his threats to pull out of the world’s biggest military alliance. For a continent that has produced strategic minds like Metternich, Talleyrand, and Kissinger, there has been almost infantile strategic thinking on Ukraine and its long-term consequences.

If Metternich or Talleyrand (or Charles de Gaulle) were alive today, they would recommend unthinkable option 2: Work out a new grand strategic bargain with Russia, with each side accommodating the other’s core interests. Many influential European strategic minds would balk at these suggestions, because they are convinced that Russia represents a real security threat to the EU countries. Really? Which is Russia’s most fundamental strategic rival, the EU or China? With whom does it have the longest border? And with whom has its relative power changed so much? The Russians are geopolitical realists of the highest order. They know that neither Napoleon’s troops nor Hitler’s tanks are going to advance to Moscow again. The Europeans don’t see the obvious contradiction between exulting in Russia’s inability to defeat Ukraine (a country of 38 million people and a GDP of about $189 billion in 2024) and then declaring that Russia is the real threat to Europe (which has 744 million people and a GDP of $27 trillion in 2024). The Russians would likely be happy to work out a fair compromise with the EU, respecting current borders between Russia and the EU and a realistic compromise on Ukraine that doesn’t threaten either side’s core interests.

In the long run, after some strategic trust has redeveloped between Russia and a new strategically autonomous Europe, Ukraine could gradually serve as a bridge between the EU and Russia rather than as a bone of contention. Brussels should consider itself fortunate that, in relative terms, Russia is a declining power, not a rising power. If the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a relatively weaker regional organization, can work out a long-term relationship of trust with a rising power like China, surely the EU can do better with Russia.

And this leads to unthinkable option 3: Work out a new strategic compact with China. Again, in the realm of the ABCs of foreign policy, there’s an important reason why geopolitics is a combination of two words: geography and politics. The geography of the United States, which faces China across the Pacific Ocean, combined with Washington’s urge for primacy, explains the hostile relationship between the United States and China. What geopolitical pressures have caused the downturn in EU-China relations? The Europeans foolishly believed that a slavish loyalty to American geopolitical priorities would lead to rich geopolitical dividends for them. Instead, they have been kicked in the face.

The remarkable thing here is that China can help the EU deal with its real long-term geopolitical nightmare: the demographic explosion in Africa. In 1950, Europe’s population was double that of Africa. Today, Africa’s population is twice as large as Europe’s. By 2100, it will be 6 times larger. Unless Africa develops its economies, there will be a surge of African migrants into Europe. If Europeans believe that Europe will never produce leaders like Trump, they are clearly being delusional. Elon Musk isn’t the only billionaire supporting far-right parties in Europe.

To preserve a Europe run by centrist parties, Europeans should welcome any foreign investment in Africa that creates jobs and keeps Africans at home. Instead, the Europeans are shooting themselves in the foot by criticizing and opposing China’s investment in Africa. Just this one act demonstrates how naive long-term European strategic thinking has become. Brussels is sacrificing its own strategic interests to serve American interests in the hope that geopolitical subservience would lead to rewards.

Clearly, it hasn’t. Two thousand years of geopolitics has taught us a simple and obvious lesson: All great powers will put their own interests first and, if necessary, sacrifice the interests of their allies. Trump is behaving like a rational geopolitical actor in putting what he perceives to be his country’s interests first. Europe shouldn’t just criticize Trump—instead, it should emulate him. It should carry out the currently unthinkable option: Declare that henceforth it will be a strategically autonomous actor on the world stage that will put its own interests first. Trump may finally show some respect for Europe if it does that.

Video: Argentine President gave an electric chain saw to Elon Musk of DOGE to cut US Gov’t waste, mismanagement, money laundering and corruption 阿根廷總統向政府效率部部長馬斯克贈送電鋸，切除美國政府的浪費、管理不善、洗黑錢和腐敗.
https://rumble.com/v6ngz9f-argentine-president-gave-an-electric-chain-saw-to-elon-musk.html
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8YpLrP7/

Video: How did China go from being one of the poorest countries to standing toe-to-toe with the U.S. today? 中國是如何從最貧窮的國家之一發展到如今能與美國並駕齊驅的?
https://rumble.com/v6ngumr-how-did-china-go-from-being-one-of-the-poorest-countries.html
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8YpJQ64/
https://youtu.be/jK4Dqge-UNs?si=LyCcV0UekR1k2nTn

Excellent idea, removed all Chinese from STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and AI etc in US to make America great again？It will ends up like Intel, got all the best equipments but no brain people running the company! 好主意，把中國人在美國科學、技術、工程和數學和人工智能領域幹掉，讓美國再次偉大? 它最終會像英特爾一樣，擁有最好的設備，但卻沒有腦子的科技人才去管理公司. 最終是走向不歸路，玩完.

Trump is considering giving each family $5,000 as a bonus for DOGE did such a good job limiting waste and corruption saving 10s of billions 川普：考慮普發DOGE紅利 每家領5000 主管政府效率部(DOGE) 的馬斯克支持給納稅人派發「DOGE紅利」，給每個繳納聯邦所得稅的家庭派發5000元。總統川普表示會考慮這個做法

Who are the smart? Who are the stupid? Who is the Clown (clown not invited to the meeting)? 誰是聰明人？誰是傻子？誰是小丑 (小丑沒有被邀請參加會議!) ?

This will never happened in US when taking or paying bribes illegally or legally by law is the daily affairs. USAID is a perfect example. For example Obama, Clinton and Nancy Palosi still looking pretty each has accumulated wealth of more than US$200 million with annual paychecks of merely US$250,000 while on the job! 這種事情在美國是不可能發生的，在美國，非法或合法收受賄賂、行賄都是家常便飯。美國國際開發署就是一個很好的例子。例如歐巴馬、柯林頓和帕洛西的發財之路，他們在任時的年薪只有 25 萬美元，卻每人累積了超過 2 億美元的財富，貪污發財之路👍美國是#1.

The domestic tech success story is already seeing practical application in several of China’s busiest harbours. 國內技術的成功已在中國幾個最繁忙的港口實際應用

Johnson Choi Cantonese language broadcast from Hawai’i on 2-19-25 Family member abandoned by husband and 2 sons; Elon Musk terminate 2 leftist democrats controlled organs: USAID & NED; Na Ji2 hits RMB$12.3 billions 蔡永強二月十九日在夏威夷用廣東話直播: 親情，友情，無情，患難見真情，夫妻本是同林鳥 大難臨頭各自飛是最好的描述那位老太太現在的情況；今年美國是多事之秋；馬斯克打貪腐，主打民主黨左派組織: 美國國際開發總會和美國民主基金會; 哪吒2票房衝向123億人民幣.
https://rumble.com/v6mykfc-family-member-abandoned-by-husband-and-2-sons.html
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8YqTPrD/
https://youtu.be/mGv5rouL1rA?si=EKYdRZnJDIkMY4Rz

Donald Trump video: Ukraine could never had started the war and could have ended it 3 years ago. Now you are food on the table, blame no one but yourself! 川普影片：烏克蘭不應該挑起這場戰爭，而且三年前就應該結束這場戰爭。現在你已經成為被美國吃的座上菜，別怪別人，只能怪你自己笨!
https://rumble.com/v6mqzzu-ukraine-could-never-had-started-the-war-and-could-have-ended-it-3-years-ago.html
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8YVc4e3/