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Ukraine war
OpinionComment
Terry Su
Terry Su

Opinion | Ukraine war: doing US bidding on Russia could lead Europe into new ‘Suez moment’

  • If we are in a second cold war, as some have suggested, Europe could be the first casualty, just as it was during the first Cold War
  • Europe is in danger of losing its global political identity, becoming even more dependent on the US and risking a slide into untold levels of poverty

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A Norwegian Home Guard soldier stands guard at the Karst gas processing plant in Rogaland, Norway, on October 3. Norway, now the biggest supplier of gas to Europe, has increased security around its oil installations following allegations of sabotage on Nord Stream’s Baltic Sea pipelines. Photo: AFP
Terry Su
In the Hollywood film Forrest Gump, the title character quotes his mother as saying “life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get”. That line struck me again when the news broke that holes were found in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on September 26 and natural gas leaked as a result, with the pictures of a huge swirl on the sea surface quickly spreading online.
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It was sabotage. All parties condemned it and fingers were pointed, but the blame game has gone nowhere, as could be expected. Soon afterwards, there were reports of “cable sabotage” in Germany’s railway network. Then, the Kerch bridge linking Crimea and the Russian mainland was bombed, followed by Russia’s barrage of missiles on Ukrainian cities reportedly causing civilian casualties and electricity disruptions. Goodness knows what will be next.
It seems that nothing is off-limits now. The world is rightly worried about the ramifications, especially in light of fears that the escalation could trigger the use of nuclear weapons, as Russia has repeatedly threatened. On October 6, US President Joe Biden spoke of the highest risk of a nuclear “Armageddon” since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

The geopolitical picture got clearer when the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on September 30 of the Nord Stream pipeline breaches. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy”, he said, adding “that’s very significant and that offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come.”

His remarks were reminiscent of Winston Churchill’s 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech about the Cold War, in the sense that the Nord Stream pipeline explosions could symbolise the final nail in the coffin for hopes of EU-Russian reconciliation.

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That being the case, the consequences for Europe are dire. If we are actually in a second cold war, as historian Niall Ferguson put it, Europe could be its first victim, just as it was during the first Cold War.

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Swedish Coast Guard releases new video from Nord Stream gas leak

Swedish Coast Guard releases new video from Nord Stream gas leak
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