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Last Sunday (28 June), the United States marked its 250th anniversary of independence, throwing a big party under the landmark arch of Parc du Cinquantenaire, in the heart of the European Quarter in Brussels.
The celebration was attended by several guests, including high political figures such as the US ambassador in Belgium, Bill White, the secretary-general of NATO, Mark Rutte, and the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.
From American candy to lobster rolls, cheerleaders to rodeo games, the event was huge and highly debated across Brussels. For instance, some did not find it appropriate to celebrate the EU-US relationship given the current political frictions, and also criticised the privatisation of the park to host a limited-access event.
Euronews’ weekly podcast Brussels, My Love? delved into this discussion and explored the state of the US-Iran talks with Ian Lesser, distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Lina Aburous, senior managing director and head of critical issues practice at Forward Global and Leo Cendrowicz, journalist and editor for Euronews and The Brussels Times.
The US’s 250th anniversary celebration in Brussels
According to Aburous and Lesser, the party was a significant diplomatic and communications success.
“It does show you that at a certain level even people who spend all their time like us thinking about the policy side of these things, on some level, distinguish between the political disputes and the people- to-people things,” Lesser told Euronews.
“It was an excellent communication exercise; it was a typical big branding transit from D.C. to here,” Aburous added.
According to Cendrowicz, the main issue with this event was the political context, marked by a big divide between the EU and the US. “We’re seeing Europe feeling very much under threat by the Trump administration,” he told us.
Cendrowicz highlighted that President Trump’s threats over Greenland, his non-committal relationship with NATO and his strategy in Ukraine seem to suggest a US withdrawal from Europe and thus create a tense environment between Brussels and Washington.
The US-Iran talks: What role can Europe have
Yet, this week was also marked by some developments in the US-Iran war.
On Wednesday (1 July), Tehran and Washington began indirect technical talks with mediators in Doha.
“We lack a strategy to deal with Iran, and we lack a strategy to deal with greater conflicts in the Middle East,” Aburous underlined.
According to her, major steps need to be taken to achieve durable security in the Middle East and the EU, given its sophisticated sanctions structure, can have a role in this peace-building project.
On the other hand, Cendrowicz said Europeans have “little leverage” in the current context in the Middle East. “They [Europeans] have got hope that this deal is going to stick and that the prices will go down, but otherwise they can’t really affect the negotiations,” he said.
The EU-US relationship and the US-Iran war will be further discussed at next week’s NATO summit in Ankara.
Lesser highlighted that Trump will also attend given his friendship with Turkey’s president Erdoğan, but that the final result of the meeting is difficult to foresee: “These things used to be very predictable. They’re not so predictable any more, for better or for worse,” he said.
For more on that, make sure you keep following Brussels, My Love?, and listen to the full episode in the player above or wherever you get your podcast.
Additional sources • Georgios Leivaditis, sound editing and mixing.
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