The decision of the United States President Joe Biden to create a strategic Indo-Pacific alliance with Australia and Britain to counter China did not go well with France and the European Union.
Both France and European Union have the feeling of been left out and seeing it as a return to the Trump era.
Biden had announced this week the new security initiative named AUKUS which is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States had appeared to end the romance between Biden and Europe.
After promising European leaders that “America is back” and that multilateral diplomacy would guide U.S. foreign policy, Biden has alienated numerous allies with a go-it-alone approach on key issues.
Lending his voice over the initiative, France’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, expressed “total incomprehension” at the recent move, which he called a “stab in the back,” and the EU’s foreign policy chief complained that Europe had not been consulted.
In this move might France lose a nearly $100 billion deal to build diesel submarines for Australia under the terms of the initiative, which will see the U.S. and Britain help Canberra construct nuclear-powered ones.
As such, French anger on a purely commercial level would be understandable, particularly because France, since Britain’s handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, is the only European nation to have significant territorial possessions or a permanent military presence in the Pacific.
But French and European Union officials went further, saying the agreement calls into question the entire cooperative effort to blunt China’s growing influence and underscores the importance of languishing plans to boost Europe’s own defense and security capabilities.
Some have compared Biden’s recent actions to those of his predecessor, Donald Trump, under Trump’s “America First” doctrine. That’s surprising for a president steeped in international affairs who ran for the White House vowing to mend shaken ties with allies and restore U.S. credibility on the world stage.
Although it’s impossible to predict if any damage will be lasting, the short-term impact seems to have rekindled European suspicions of American intentions — with potential implications for Biden’s broader aim to unite democracies against authoritarianism, focused primarily on China and Russia.
Reacting to France’s allegation that it was not consulted before the initiative was formed; the White House and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said France had been informed of the decision before it was announced on Wednesday, although it was not exactly clear when.
Blinken said Thursday there had been conversations with the French about it within the past 24 to 48 hours, suggesting there had not been an in-depth consultation.
In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed the French minister’s complaints. “I suppose that an agreement of this nature was not cooked up the day before yesterday. It takes a certain amount of time, and despite that, no, we were not consulted,” he said. “That obliges us, once again … to reflect on the need to put European strategic autonomy high on the agenda.”
Indeed, the 27-member European Union on Thursday unveiled a new strategy for boosting economic, political and defense ties in the Indo-Pacific, just hours after the announcement by the U.S., Britain and Australia. The EU said the aim is to strengthen and expand economic relations while reinforcing respect of international trade rules and improving maritime security. It said it hopes the strategy will result in more European naval deployments to the region.
U.S. officials brushed aside the French and EU complaints on Thursday.
“There is a range of partnerships that include the French and some partnerships that don’t, and they have partnerships with other countries that don’t include us,” Psaki said. “That is part of how global diplomacy works.”
Speaking alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Australian defense and foreign ministers, Blinken said there “is no regional divide” with Europe over Indo-Pacific strategy. “We welcome European countries playing an important role in the Indo-Pacific,” he said, calling France a “vital partner.”
