The defense minister spoke before France's Senate on Wednesday, with talk revolving almost exclusively around the fallout of the AUKUS (Australia, UK, US) deal. The agreement was announced last week, causing an uproar in Paris as it came along with Australia ditching a landmark submarine contract with France and opting to buy US-made nuclear submarines instead.
The hostile move is yet more proof of troubles in the transatlantic cooperation, Parly stated. "I am thinking of Turkish adventurism in the Mediterranean, or of the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan in an uncoordinated manner," she added.
The attitude of the United States toward the submarine program is a further illustration of the observation that we have been making for months: today, political dialogue is non-existent within the Atlantic Alliance.While ditching NATO altogether is not an option, the alliance is long due for a 'review' of its strategic goals, the minister said, reminding that, originally, the bloc was created for the "collective defense of Europe."
"The United States plays an essential role there, but France also plays its role," Parly told the parliament. "The raison d'รชtre of NATO is not confrontation with China. The raison d'รชtre of NATO is transatlantic security. This is what we must remind the United States."
To be an ally is not to be hostage to the interests of the other.Paris has been bitterly insulted by the surprise emergence of AUKUS, with France recalling its ambassador from Washington and top officials producing a flurry of angry remarks over the past few days. France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, for instance, accused US President Joe Biden of acting like his predecessor Donald Trump, calling the move a "brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision."
Widely seen as an attempt to counter China's influence in the Indo-Pacific, the AUKUS pact has also spelled an end to the France-Australia submarine deal, commonly touted as "the contract of the century."
Under the deal, worth at least $40 billion, Paris was to supply 12 diesel-electric Barracuda-class submarines to Canberra. Under the AUKUS deal now, however, the US and UK have pledged to deliver a fleet of nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarines to Australia.
Reader Comments
Still, for the us of a to betray its most important ally from the perspective of the country's origin speaks volumes regarding the stupidity of those "yes-man" and "yes-women" occupying the offices of the "state department". I reckon it is time for the states to start asserting themselves because the effers in DC have lost their minds.
obviolsly they still think along those lines - even if it is/have been outdated thinking for a good number of years.
i wonder which countermeasures the chinese will come up with. (it should ideally be something substentially cheaper than building 8 nuke subs).
Australia and China would make a formidable alliance and truly it makes sense from a geographical perspective - if you contemplate how close they are to one another. And really, China already knows Australia is fixing to be in its back pocket. Too bad for Australia they have such poor leadership because if not they might have some leverage, but now everybody knows they are just puppets for the taking.
Maybe the citizens of said country might have another idea, but if the authorities continue with their tyranny, then the whole lot of them are fixing to be subsumed into another country. It is a shame to witness, but it is obvious.
Your country and mine could be next, but in the end Australia and China will be best buddies because it just makes sense and who could have a problem with that? Not I. Why not look a little closer to home and close the bases across the globe that serve no interest besides those of the complex? Seriously, why are my tax dollar being wasted across the oceans to fight some imaginary enemy that is no enemy of mine. I'm sick of it and it is time for a change for the better. It is past time. Learn or Die.
despite being an analytic, i can simply not comprehend.
so i don't know how much fck i should give ๐ค
going diving/flying, fcking, volcaneering, dining, drinking will prb take presedence