Despite reservations, it made an important concession to the United States in June - allowing the inclusion for the first time of a reference to China in the final communiqué of a NATO summit. In the European view, one Cold War was enough.įrance can also argue that it is owed something. We are right, but we are alone.”Ī joint French-German approach to China combining engagement with firm criticism of China’s human rights record could be the foundation of a distinctly more conciliatory European stance on the world’s most pressing strategic issue - the rapid rise of President Xi Jinping’s surveillance state. Macron’s plea,” Dominique Moisi, a political scientist, said, referring to the president’s quest for a far stronger and more autonomous Europe. “The submarine deal has reinforced the validity of Mr. For them, European “sovereignty” is anathema they want their own, stolen not so long ago by the Soviet Union.īecause European Union foreign policy decisions have to be taken unanimously, these differences matter greatly. Le Drian has spoken with his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, but Germany’s American bond involves no less than the country’s postwar rebirth, something unshakable.Īs for central European nations like Poland and Hungary, they place American protection through NATO far above French interests in the Indo-Pacific. The affront to France has on the whole been met with a resounding silence from its European allies, although Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, did tell CNN that “one of our member states has been treated in a way that is not acceptable.” The problem is that the European Union is disunited. Macron, it’s the only way for Europe to “remain part of history.” Trump’s dismissiveness of Europe, after Brexit and in light of clear trans-Atlantic differences on China - could scarcely be stronger. The case for a united Europe to chart its own course - after the submarine fiasco, after the Afghan mayhem, after President Donald J. Macron’s view, expressed in 2019, that NATO is “brain dead” - and foreign ministry officials discounted the possibility. One idea doing the rounds in France is for the country to withdraw from NATO’s integrated military command structure, which it rejoined in 2009 after a 43-year absence.īut that would be a radical step - whatever Mr. In responding to the secretive U.S.-British move to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, a decision that the Australians used to nix the prior French deal, Mr. The question in the Australian submarine deal that slipped from France’s grasp is: Does the president hold sufficient cards? He has also recalled French ambassadors to Turkey and Italy during his presidency over perceived insults. Macron became president at the age of 39. He has directed his foreign minister to use language not typically associated with diplomacy, let alone diplomacy between allies, in describing American actions: “lies,” “duplicity,” “brutality” and “contempt.” He has recalled the French ambassador to the United States, a first. PARIS - President Emmanuel Macron of France has gambled big.
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