Biden “empties” Europe and chooses comparison with China
More than ever, the confrontation with China is emerging as its top international priority Joe BidenThe And their president USA cold-blooded, even if it means causing collateral damage among its allies, as was the case with the agreement AUKUS and sale of FranceThe
Wednesday’s announcement of the US-Australia-Australia Strategic Partnership (AUKUS) in the Indo-Pacific region, which provides for the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines and US missiles by Australia, is the latest manifestation of this Beijing’s growing ambitions.
AUKUS is detrimental to France, which was found blocked and lost by cancellation of a huge submarine order to be sold in Canberra. This particular defense plan between the US, Britain and Australia brought Brussels in a state of surpriseThe
Why Biden “emptied” Europe – How we reached the AUKUS agreement
“The priority is to compete with China,” said Benjamin Haddad of the Atlantic Council. He added: “Everything else is just a distraction.”
This French researcher based in the USA considers this agreement as “a form of continuity” of the slogan “America first“, The favorite slogan of former Republican President Donald Trump, but also” more and more of a one-sided method “.
Joe Biden against China he immediately adopted the same vigorous attitude as his predecessor. Beijing has been described as “the greatest geopolitical challenge of the 21st century” by Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken. However, the 78-year-old president’s initial message “America is backBack to her allies, she wanted to break the unilateral actions and chauvinism of the Republican billionaire.
The first months of the presidency seemed to give commitments in this direction, with a greater impact of respect for the European Union and NATO, and the declared will to build a common anti-Chinese transatlantic front. Withdrawal from Afghanistan, however, showed the limits of this approach.
Despite consultations on this “sensitive” decision, several European allies, mainly Germans and Britons, did not hide their dissatisfaction with US policy on the facts. “The world is changing. “We are in critical competition with China,” said President Biden. withdrawal of the last American soldier from Afghanistan, explaining that the longest-running war in U.S. history had actually turned into a distraction that Washington could no longer bear.
Since arriving in the White House eight months ago, Democrat Joe Biden has made it clear that this is a goal that surpasses all others. And in domestic politics, big financial investment plans are justified by the need to tackle the “Chinese dragon”.
Australian “made in France” submarines left on paper – Rage in Paris
However, following the announcement of the alliance with Australia and Britain, which “torpedoed” the Paris agreement with Campella for the delivery of submarines, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, speaking on France Info radio station, said on Thursday 16 September that “this unilateral, crude, unexpected decision is very similar to what Mr. Trump did.”
And when unforeseen events occurred in the practice of international strategy, such as the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip last spring or the sudden collapse of the Afghan army in the summer, the 46th US president looked confused – as he may have been annoyed. get out of his way.
From Washington’s point of view, the AUKUS alliance is not necessarily contradictory to Biden’s multilateral approach. “It emphasizes the importance of alliances and partnerships,” said Walter Lohmann, director of Asian studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation. According to him, addressing the “Chinese challenge” requires “every good will”.
In this sense, the supply of fire-fighting submarines to Australia, less easily detected by Beijing, is a “very important” step forward, which, in Lohmann’s view, deserves this little “betrayal” of the Franco-American relationship. He added: “At the end of the day, the French are big kids, they understand how arms sales work better than anyone. They will overcome it. “But it will be important to maintain a role for France in the future in US strategic thinking in the region, perhaps in parallel.”
Europe, faced with Joe Biden, comes second in the “want” of the USA
The Biden government will indeed favor “alliances with changing geometry considered in its interests,” warns Benjamin Haddad, who fears that Europe is “becoming more and more secondary,” according to the APE-MPE.
Despite his Irish origins and the pro-European and Atlantic prism that has characterized him for years, the American president does not seem to confirm more than ever the “axis” towards Asia that was started 10 years ago by Barack Obama. The then Secretary of Defense Lion Panetta announced in June 2012 the gradual strengthening of the US Navy in the South Pacific, while then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a few months later, in November 2012, was in Sydney and was strong. .
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