During his visit to New York in connection with the United Nations General Assembly, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian estimated that the United States, by not consulting plans to create an AUKUS agreement with its European Union allies, had undermined trust between the partners. . At the same time, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, announced that the foreign ministers of EU countries, who also met in New York, expressed their support for France in its dispute with the United States.
In US Behavior, “we see a notorious trace of reactions typical of an era that we hope has recently passed.” said the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Yves Le Drian. He also stressed that the breach of the contract to supply French submarines to Australia and the creation of the AUKUS defense alliance without notifying the European partners “forces the latter to think seriously”.
What raises our biggest concerns, apart from the termination of the employment contract – a brutal, unexpected and inexplicable break – concerns in the first place Undermining trust in relationships between partners – said the head of French diplomacy. After all, the alliance assumes predictability, mutual interpretation of situations, as well as conversations and not hiding anything from the other. – He argued.
He believed that the current crisis in French-American relations “requires an explanation” from the American side. This is a prerequisite for further reporting.
But the head of the French foreign ministry did not say whether French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden would speak on the phone on the subject in the coming days. He did not rule out that such a conversation would occur in the future. He also told reporters that He does not plan to meet his US counterpart Anthony Blinken on the occasion of the United Nations General AssemblyAlthough, as he pointed out, “it will certainly bypass our lobbies.”
The French minister did not hide his disappointment at the exclusion of European partners from the new US strategic initiative in the Indo-Pacific region. stress it In Paris’ opinion, Washington’s policy toward China is “extremely confrontational.”. European countries will have to come up with an alternative strategy – based on competition with China, and sometimes – as he puts it – “you’ll have to flex your muscles”.
together Heads of diplomacy in the countries of the European Unionwho met in New York on the occasion of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, They expressed their support for France in its dispute with the United States on submarines. This information was provided by the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
As noted by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, The support of the 26 ministers was unequivocal.
In relations between Paris and Washington, a serious crisis has recently occurred due to the withdrawal of Australia from the contract for the purchase of submarines in France in the framework of strengthening cooperation with the United States.
On September 15, Washington, London and Canberra announced a new trilateral defense agreement between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, known as AUKUS. On this occasion, Canberra terminated the contract, which had been negotiated for several months with France, for the purchase of conventional submarines from the Naval Group, which amounted to 40 billion US dollars. The Australians intend to build their naval fleet on the basis of nuclear-powered submarines of American production.
