True, but his pressure was very hard and that is not the only way to put pressure on someone. I don't think any country should go about it like 'we will make them do what we want because we are big and powerful' but I think in this it would be fair to say 'these are our interests and if you harm them it will make us less willing to do things that are in your interest'.
This means an EU country could send an asylum seeker to a country halfway around the world, where she has never been, doesn’t speak the language, and has no cultural ties, family or community, and where prospects for a fair procedure and support for rebuilding her life could be in doubt. Under the new proposal, her appeal of the decision would no longer prevent her from being put on a plane before the appeal is considered.
If they were open about trading with Russia and publicly exclaimed they do not want to be a part in this and choose to trade like they did before the war they would be neutral and EU wouldn't have much to complain about. But that is not the case, they lie about their business with Russia and therefor aren't neutral but 'neutral' if you get what I mean.
It is true it isn't a problem for the rest of eternity, but this small time frame is indeed relatively as in the people alive at that time will have to go through the consequences for at least a decade probably longer. You can spread that out over a longer period of time with all kinds of economic tools but you can't erase it entirely is my original point.
I disagree, especially with US moving away. We certainly need china for a lot of things, but aside the eu is their biggest economic partner and China relies heavily on export for keeping their economy running. Not giving access to western technologies is a way of putting pressure on China, but I think you're right the amount of weight we heavy over China greatly decreased over the last years. But there are many ways in which Europe can put it's weight in the fight and personally I hope they will mainly do so by using soft power. China might not be very susceptible to talks about moral values if you look at how they threat Uyghurs for example, but I think the communist party does know how it feel to be the underdog. What Russia is doing to Ukraine is in no way fair and China has also been treated unfairly many times before in history. Also China wants to expand beyond producing stuff for the rest of the world, and since they are becoming more expensive they might need to move away from production just like the middle-east needs to move away from oil. Just because they are getting more advanced technologically and are getting a stronger military etc, does not mean they don't need friends. Their friendship with Europe is under pressure if they actively support enemies of the EU.
True, but his pressure was very hard and that is not the only way to put pressure on someone. I don't think any country should go about it like 'we will make them do what we want because we are big and powerful' but I think in this it would be fair to say 'these are our interests and if you harm them it will make us less willing to do things that are in your interest'.