There is an ice age between Paris and Washington

The American government waited until the very last moment. Only a few hours before the official announcement of the new security pact with Great Britain and Australia for the Pacific region, the White House admitted the French ambassador to Washington.

What the French had to learn threatens to put a permanent strain on relations between France and the USA. As part of the partnership, Australia will receive the highly sensitive technology for nuclear-powered submarines – which also means the end of a nearly 60 billion euro submarine deal with the French Naval Group.

For months, according to the French newspaper “Le Monde”, the US government left its allies in Paris in the dark. Even when the French became suspicious of the increased foreign policy activities of the White House, they were denied information in Washington.

The Australians, too, have apparently done everything they can to cover up the plans. In a declaration with the French at the end of August, after consultations with the foreign and defense ministers of both countries, they emphasized the “importance of the future submarine program”.

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The new security agreement Aukus, which the USA, Australia and Great Britain announced last week, had probably already been largely negotiated by this time. It is therefore very unlikely that the Canberra government did not yet know that it would replace the French submarines on order with the offer from the United States.

Emmanuel Macron

French President and US President Joe Biden will be on the phone in the coming days.

(Photo: Reuters)

Now the damage has been done: a few weeks after the unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan, the new US President Joe Biden has shown again that close coordination with European allies is not one of his foreign policy priorities. Curbing Chinese influence in the Pacific – that’s what he’s about. And for this he is obviously ready to accept a diplomatic crisis with the oldest US ally in Europe.

France is duped and angry. The embassy in Washington canceled a gala evening at which they actually wanted to remember the 240th anniversary of the naval battle of the Virginia Capes together with the Americans. The victory of a French over a British fleet at that time is considered an important moment in the American War of Independence. The French had lost their party mood.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian moved Biden closer to his predecessor Donald Trump: The rhetoric in Washington may have changed, the unilateral decision-making mode remained without regard to allies. On Friday evening, Paris finally escalated the dispute further: the French ambassador from Washington was ordered back home for consultations. France also temporarily withdrew the ambassador from Canberra. The breach of trust weighs heavily on the French.

After all: French President Emmanuel Macron and Biden will be on the phone in the coming days. The US President asked for the conversation, it said on Sunday from the Élysée Palace in Paris. The date and time, however, have not yet been determined.

In any case, it cannot be expected that the two heads of state will resolve their conflict. According to the Élysée, the submarine deal and the questions of European strategy in the Pacific region were also discussed during the visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel to Paris last Thursday.

Germany between the fronts

Germany is getting into trouble with the rift between its two most important allies. Traditionally, the federal government tries to reconcile the French striving for European autonomy with the close strategic ties to the USA. But the French are so angry with the US government that it will be difficult to maintain that balance.

France sees the incident as final proof that Europe can no longer rely on the US – and that the EU must take its fate into its own hands. In Berlin, on the other hand, they want to avoid a break with Washington at all costs, if only because Germany’s security concept is based on the Americans’ nuclear protective shield.

“The reaction of France is understandable, but we still need a close partnership with the USA,” said Bijan Djir-Sarai, foreign policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, the Handelsblatt. “The USA is and will remain our most important allies for future geopolitical challenges.” The current dispute between France and the USA must not endanger the transatlantic bridge. Paris should therefore “stop whining”.

The Greens basically support the French demand for a strengthening of the EU’s foreign policy, but also see the need to realign Europe’s China policy and thus to accommodate the USA.

“That’s not how you treat each other among allies,” said Franziska Brantner, spokeswoman for European policy, classifying the incident. “With a strong, strategically sovereign Europe, the US would not allow itself to do something so gross.” The task now is to find “a common policy for the West towards China”.

More: Nuclear submarine deal between the US and Australia angered China – and allies in the EU.

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