In their latest communiqué, NATO leaders declared that China presents “systemic challenges to the rules-based international order.” The response from China’s mission to the European Union was clear: “We will not present a ‘systemic challenge’ to anyone, but if someone wants to pose a ‘systemic challenge’ to us, we will not remain indifferent.” Such a tit-for-tat rhetoric is unnecessary, and most of the world’s population probably does not want it to escalate. Yet escalation is becoming more likely every day.

Efforts to placate both the United States and the PRC are proving ever more challenging, as the recent Group of Seven and NATO summits have shown.

The notion of persuading countries in an expanded G7 to adhere to the U.S. line for containing China has far too much working against it. The schism between America and Europe is only widening under the unpredictable impulses of the current U.S. president.

Trump’s inclusion of guests of honor looks a lot like an attempt to encircle China. Worries about a “new cold war” between China and the U.S. are not unfounded, as progress is being whittled away.

The G7 Summit, which just concluded at the French seaside resort of Biarritz, showed that Europe and the United States diverge with and even increasingly confront each other on trade issues. Considering its fading influence, the continued value of the G7 has been thrown into doubt, even by European academia.

The Trump administration’s “America First” style of unilateralism has alienated even longtime European allies. The leaders of France, Germany, the EU Commission, and China have all pledged themselves to support multilateralism — in a sign of the times, Trump’s America is left out in the cold.

After the G7 and SCO summits last weekend, it is tempting to paint a simplistic picture of a Western world unraveling at the seams and an increasingly cohesive alternative order led by powers like China. While there is an element of truth in this narrative, it is important not to overlook the enduring motives for cooperation within the Western bloc and obstacles to cooperation between the SCO powers.

Put simply, President Trump thinks that Europe and other allies have profited too much at the US’ expense and that the US should stop being such a sucker. That view will shape trans-Atlantic relations for the duration of this presidency.

Convinced that the time for this moment is right at last, President Barack Obama on Friday will become the first American president to confront the historic and haunted ground of Hiroshima.