The cancellation, under American pressure, of a colossal contract for the purchase of submarines by Australia is denounced in Paris as a “blow in the back”, unworthy of relations between allies.
It is a betrayal reminiscent of that of August 31, 2013 in Syria. That day, when the French Rafale engines were already on to strike Bashar al-Assad’s regime after a new chemical massacre, Barack Obama’s America had suddenly turned around and abandoned its allies in the wilderness. . Denying a red line that he himself had set, the American president, by withdrawing, had caused the cancellation of the Western operation. Some in French strategic circles have still not recovered from this desertion which undoubtedly had the effect of increasing the influence of the revisionist powers, and not only in the Greater Middle East.
Perfect hypocrisy
The stabbing at France by the Americans, who forced the breach of the mega contract of submarines signed with Australia to take the place of Paris, provoked a diplomatic crisis worthy of that of August 2013. Ten years of effort and investment were swept away in five minutes and with perfect hypocrisy, since French officials had not been made aware upstream … “Today I am angry, with a lot of bitterness. It is not done between allies … This unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision, it looks a lot like what Mr. Trump was doing », Said Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Those who still had illusions about the fact that it was easier for France to work with a Democratic president than with a Republican head of state, saw them fly away, erased one after the other by facts… “We cannot but take note of the American decision to dismiss an ally in this way. », Adds a diplomatic source. This “blow in the back», As Jean-Yves Le Drian says, hurts all the more because it is worn only a few weeks after the traumatic withdrawal from Afghanistan. And by a president, Joe Biden, who since his arrival at the White House has been asserting in all tones his intention to reconnect with America’s traditional allies, after the wounds inflicted by Donald Trump on the transatlantic relationship and multilateralism. Obviously, for Joe Biden, there are allies and allies… Faced with the rise of China, the alliance between Anglo-Saxon countries is considered superior to the classic transatlantic relationship. Can we still continue to say that France, since Brexit, has become the United States’ best ally?
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This Trafalgar shot “undermines the credibility of the Indo-Pacific strategy of the Europeans, the very day it was to be revealed by the EU. However, France has been fully committed to this since 2018Says Frédéric Grare, a researcher at the European Council for International Relations (ECFR). Paris had made the merger with Canberra one of the two pillars, with India, of its new strategy in the region. Will the fact that one of the two legs of this policy has been broken condemn the other to limping? «The confrontational view of relations between the United States and China is not ours. France’s Indo-Pacific strategy is not a strategy against China», Recalls a diplomatic source. She adds : “The US / China rivalry cannot be the only strategic subject for Europeans. But the third European path that Emmanuel Macron was pushing in the region took a blow in the wing on Thursday.
This is not just the end of a contract, but a strategic issue for Europe
A diplomatic source
Will the diplomatic crisis between Paris and Washington last as long as the one between the French and the Americans in 2003 over the Iraq war? “It depends. Will Joe Biden do like Barack Obama in 2013, will he try to repair relations with France?», Replied Bruno Tertrais, deputy director of the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS).
In the meantime, the American slap proves Emmanuel Macron right. Both on the necessary European strategic autonomy and on NATO’s weaknesses. “This is not just the end of a contract, but a strategic issue for Europe», Says a diplomatic source. However, the interests of France and Australia remain convergent in the region. The Atlantic Alliance, even with its weaknesses, remains irreplaceable. As for the United States, even with their acts of perfidy, they remain allies of France.
SEE ALSO – Australia cancels contract with France to build nuclear submarines with Washington and London
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