Baroness Ashton served as the EU's foreign-policy chief from 2009 to 2014. In that role she chaired the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5 (America, Britain, China, France and Russia) plus Germany and the EU, which produced the JCPOA in 2015.
During the talks she found that the P5 shared a remarkable sense of common purpose against an Iranian bomb. Even during the 2013 Ukrainian political crisis, she would leave the Iran meetings in Vienna to fly to Kyiv and denounce Russian meddling, while Russia's negotiator flew to Moscow to condemn the West—then both would return to Vienna for constructive talks. She described China as "a team player" on the Iran nuclear file.
She has observed that Donald Trump's preference for bilateral dealmaking raises hard questions about Iran's incentives to disarm. America acting alone can apply coercion, but given Iranian distrust of Mr Trump, only an international coalition can credibly offer the long-term economic reopening that Iran seeks.
Collaboration, n.: A literary partnership based on the false assumption that the other fellow can spell.