Editor's Note:

The world is seeing many unprecedented changes today: the ongoing China-US trade war, Brexit, Washington's unilateralism and incoherent policy... Where is our current global system heading? Will there be changes in international regulations? What should countries do to maintain a stable international order? Global Times brought together the opinion of three speakers during the 16th Eurasian Media Forum held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from May 22 to 24.

George Galloway, former member of the Labour Party, British broadcaster and writer

There will be an egregious trade policy because it suits the elite in the West. They don't care if the workers' lunch is stolen, because they are sitting at a banquet. China is fully entitled as a sovereign country to pursue its own interests and policies. And so is the US. But both should do so with the knowledge that the fearsome potential of the trade war to become a real war is clearly dangerous for everyone. 

The US is not moving toward a war with China. That would be exceedingly foolish. But the US might be steaming into a war with Iran. And I'm here to tell the US, as someone who warned them about the consequences of war with Iraq, that a war against Iran may be a hundred times more destabilizing and more dangerous than the war with Iraq. So, I call for cool heads and for proper negotiations between two great sovereign countries, the US and China. They should pursue their own interests, but should be mindful that everybody's lunch might not just be stolen, but the entire dining table may be overturned. 

Mark Siegel, deputy assistant to former US president Jimmy Carter

One of the things that we have to face today is the Trump administration's allergy to multilateralism and walking away from agreements and international law. For instance, there were reports saying that President Trump would pardon war criminals - people who were convicted of war crimes, violating the US military code and the Geneva Convention. What kind of a message is that to the world or to the young people of America about trust and respect for law?

I think it was the same with the Iran agreement. We see that over and over again. If you just look at US foreign policy and military policy, isn't President Trump an isolationist? And his national security adviser is a unilateral interventionist. There is no decision-making process in the White House because President Trump makes policy by whim, by tweet, and without a process that develops economic, military or political ideas. It's very difficult for the world to deal with such an environment and to trust the US. Why should anyone negotiate with the US if it just ripped up agreements? Why should North Korea negotiate the treaty with the US when Iran negotiated a deal and now it is just scrapped? That's what I mean by incoherence.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Austrian diplomat and politician, president of Euroamerica Foundation

Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci said, "The old is dying, and the new cannot be born." It is exactly that we are all going through a transformation of a new geopolitical, geo-economic and geo-technological order. For me, I am in favor of a rules-based order. I think what Italian politician Federica Mogherini said was right: Rule of the jungle may prevail over the rule of law. Rules-based international law is the basis of everything. If we are acting out of law, we'll have struggles and conflicts, and in the end, we might have wars. 

It is true that the international system has to be reformed. Some say that we have to do away with the system, but we say that we have to change and reform it. So, in my opinion, Britain should stay within the European Union. I do hope that there would be a second referendum, and maybe there will be a chance for Britain to come back.

And we don't want a trade war with China. We would like to find a solution through negotiations. We have a global playing field that is equal for everybody. Indeed, the US and China are strategic competitors, and China is nearly a superpower. This can be difficult for the US since it has been dominating the world after WWII. The EU is always a community that prefers peace, and we want to avoid the China-US Thucydides' Trap. Thus we need to have stronger leaders in Europe, and particularly more unity and effective way of doing things. And for that, we have to reform the EU. We have to be tough and clear, but we should not go to a trade war.