WORLD VIEW: From time to time there are voices trying to drive in wedges between Europe and the United States. The climate issue and the next steps in the fight against terrorism have given rise to transatlantic debate. However, the relationship between Europe and the US is fundamentally solid and based on a strong set of common values. We are each other's most important partners, politically, militarily, economically and culturally. September 11th has brought us closer together, writes Per Stig Moeller.
Both NATO and extensive EU-US co-operation provide the framework for our solidarity, and this solidarity has been demonstrated in words as well as action. This will be made even more obvious in the upcoming enlarged EU and NATO.
The US's clear support for the European integration processes, not least the enlargement of NATO, precisely demonstrates genuine American engagement in the efforts to secure a whole and undivided Europe. We need the US, and the US needs us.
We Europeans have consistently maintained that security across the Atlantic is indivisible. This also applies to the fight against terrorism. It is therefore very important that we do not waiver. Let us not forget that the US has come to Europe's rescue when we were threatened. Now they - together with the rest of us - are the victims of international terrorism. In that situation, our common values and alliance commit us to stand side by side, we must therefore avoid contributing to divisions in the fight against terrorism by jumping on the bandwagon and criticising the US at the first available opportunity.
Different positions on single issues and differences in political style and language must not overshadow our fundamental common values and our agreement that international terrorism must be fought and that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction must be prevented.
Those now criticising the US for employing sharp language and for focusing too much on military instead of civilian means, should remember that precisely where the US has acted militarily, it has most often been at the request of Europe. It was we who asked the United States to enter the two world wars. It was at our request that the they intervened in the Balkans because we could not do the job ourselves. And there will probably be a widespread desire to retain the US's military engagement in Afghanistan for some time yet. By and large Europe has often had difficulty in making up its mind. On the one hand, the US is criticised if it intervenes, but on the other it is also criticised when it does not do so.
Terrorism is a many-headed monster, and for this reason the fight against it is taking place on many fronts. Political, diplomatic, legal, military and development assistance policy instruments are utilised in many different contexts, the most important of which have been the UN, the EU and NATO. Everywhere it is government policy that targeted and consistent action must be taken against terrorism and the conditions that nourish it.
The transatlantic ties must therefore be constantly nursed and expanded. The US's international engagement and leadership is still required - for its own sake and for ours. At the same time, we must of course continue to argue convincingly that the US best protects its own interests and those of the international community within the framework of enhanced multilateral co-operation.
We must insist that what unites us is far more important than what divides us. It is natural for close partners to conduct an open and constructive dialogue. There is no reason to hide the fact that differences of opinion exist between the EU and the US, for example when it comes to climate issues, the International Criminal Court, biotechnology and other trade policy issues, such as the steel case. However, the answer is dialogue and negotiation.
That also applies to the Middle East, where the EU and the US play different roles because of their different backgrounds, but where we fundamentally have the same goals and interests. The parties to the conflict must make large-scale and painful compromises if just and permanent peace is to be created in the Middle East. The US active engagement will be decisive for the parties to enter a lasting peace agreement. The EU and the US have a common interest in actively contributing to removing the causes that are turning the Middle East into a nest of terrorism and instability.
If peace is created in the Middle East, because of its close historical, cultural and economic ties to the region, the EU will make a significant contribution to the region's economic reconstruction, most notably through increased trade. Nobody, and especially not the parties to the conflict - can be interested in political divisions between the EU and the US on the issue of the Middle East. Such division would merely stand in the way of a just and lasting peace.
There has been a great deal of discussion of President Bush's State of the Union speech and his reference to an "axis of evil", in which North Korea, Iran and Iraq are mentioned. The European left has taken the opportunity once more to present American decision-makers as cowboys, who divide the world in black and white without any understanding of international relations. In The White House, in the State Department, in the Congress, at the universities and in the think-tanks, there is a large number of knowledgeable and experienced people who directly and indirectly help formulate US foreign policy, which at the end of the day is naturally decided by democratically elected representatives. Mr Bush's speech cannot be taken out of the context of the shock following on the September 11th terrorist attack, the psychological depth of which we Europeans have probably not fully understood.
I note that Mr Bush himself, during his tour of Asia, emphasised that the US first and foremost wants to solve all problems peacefully, whether this involves Iraq, Iran or North Korea. At the same time we agree that we must keep a watchful eye on those countries, because there is reason to suspect that in different ways they are involved in the production or proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This is, naturally, quite unacceptable.
For the Danish EU presidency it will be essential to continue the campaign against terrorism with determination. The situation in the wake of September 11th presents new opportunities for global co-operation to solve common problems. We must take advantage of these opportunities. The success thus far can and must be used as a stepping stone to nurse and expand transatlantic ties.
It must also be used as a lever to strengthen the EU's common foreign and security policy to enable us to become even stronger partners. The times call for unity - not division.
Per Stig Moeller is the Foreign Minister of Denmark, which on Monday assumes the presidency of the European Community