French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday that the submarine crisis shows that the European Union “can no longer count” on the United States to guarantee protection and asked Europeans to “open their eyes.”
“The first lesson to be learned from this episode is that the European Union must build its strategic independence. The Afghanistan episode and the submarine episode show that we can no longer count on the United States to provide our strategic protection, ”he said in his statements. at Franceinfo.
“The United States has only one strategic goal: China and containment of China’s growth in power,” the French minister added.
According to Bruno Le Meur, both former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden “believe that their allies must be obedient.”
“But we believe that we must be independent,” he defended, adding that “the European partners must open their eyes.”
The crisis between the two countries stems from the fact that the United States, Britain and Australia signed the AUKUS pact (English initials of the three Anglo-Saxon countries), which aims to strengthen trilateral cooperation in advanced defense technologies such as artificial intelligence, underwater systems and long-range surveillance.
The first consequence of this was the cancellation by Australia of the contract with France for the supply of conventional submarines and the intention to buy nuclear submarines from the United States, which caused strong protests and criticism from Paris.
France had a contract for the supply of twelve conventional submarines to Australia worth 56 billion euros. This delivery was canceled by Canberra as the Australian government decided to buy nuclear submarines from the United States.
The decision was sharply criticized by France, a number of European countries and the leaders of the European Union. Since then, relations with the United States have soured.
The only European country that did not criticize this decision was Denmark, whose Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that she did not understand the position of the European partners. The French economy minister used Thursday’s interview to criticize “Denmark’s support for the United States.”
“It is a mistake to think, as the head of state of Denmark, that the United States will continue to defend and protect us, no matter what happens,” he said, adding that from now on, Europe “cannot count on anyone but itself “.
The two dispersed presidents of the United States and France spoke on the phone Wednesday and agreed to meet in October to ease diplomatic tensions over the Australian submarine.
In a joint statement following the phone call, the leaders of the two countries announced that they would meet “in Europe at the end of October” and that the French ambassador to Washington, summoned for consultations last week, will resume his duties next week.
“The two leaders agreed that the situation could benefit from open consultations between allies,” the statement added, referring to protests in Paris over the lack of advance notice of a protection pact between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.
“President Biden has expressed his unwavering commitment to this issue,” the joint statement added, noting that the US leader believes it is “necessary for European defense to be stronger and more effective” in order to promote transatlantic security and fulfill “NATO’s role”. …
