Look at the news Knows reporter Fang Yuan
2021-09-23 21:07
A week after the "submarine gate" incident, the US and French leaders finally got on the phone. On the evening of September 22, local time, the Elysee Palace of the French Presidential Palace issued a notice saying that French President Macron was invited to talk with US President Biden on the phone to discuss the impact of the united States, Britain and Australia recently announced the establishment of a new trilateral security partnership. Macron then decided that the French ambassador to the United States, who had been recalled earlier, would return to the United States next week.
On September 15, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia announced the establishment of a new trilateral security partnership, the United States and The United Kingdom will support the Establishment of a Nuclear Submarine Force in the Australian Navy, and the Australian side will cooperate with the United States and britain to build nuclear submarines in Australia. The Australian government immediately announced the termination of the previous contract with the French Naval Group for the purchase of 12 submarines, and France did not learn of this until a few hours before the agreement was announced. Macron was furious about this, and the U.S.-France relationship suffered the "biggest crisis in decades."
Isn't an apology "apology" really appeases Macron?
To appease Macron, Biden had a 30-minute call with him, which the White House described as "friendly" and deliberately posted a photo of Biden smiling during the call to highlight the subject. The two countries also issued a joint statement in which the two sides agreed that the current situation could be avoided if open consultations were held on issues involving the strategic interests of France and its European allies.
Public opinion believes that Biden did not apologize to Macron for "inserting the knife" in France, but only vaguely said that he could have better handled the matter. Even White House spokesman Psaki repeatedly sidestepped when asked reporters whether Biden had apologized to Macron. Washington reporter Nomia Iqbal believes that Biden's operation is a "non-apologetic apology" that Americans are good at, that is, only apologizing for the lack of a process of negotiation, but not apologizing for the agreement itself.
In the view of Su Xiaohui, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies at the China Academy of International Studies, Biden's phone call was not an apology, but only an explanation of the US position. For the United States, as the ally of the alliance system, it is rare to make such a gesture to France. For the high profile of the United States, Macron chose to compromise, more to give each other a chance to communicate more in the next stage. In fact, the statement pointed out that the US and French heads of state will meet in Europe at the end of October, which is also paving the way for the subsequent improvement of US-French relations.
The US-France joint statement is a group of harmonious forces that cannot hide the intensification of differences between the United States and Europe
The US-France joint statement showed a sense of harmony, and the US-France summit meeting was imminent, but the contradictions between the United States and France and even the United States and the European Union were gradually put on the table. Eu Council President Michel told the media at U.N. headquarters in New York that the basis for connecting allies is transparency and trust, an incident that lacks transparency and trust. European Commission President von der Leyen said the actions of the United States, Britain and Australia against France were "unacceptable" and asked the United States and Australia for an explanation.
German Foreign Minister Maas also expressed solidarity with France on the 21st, saying that the incident was "infuriating and disappointing" and needed to reflect on how to strengthen European sovereignty. The senior French official for European affairs bluntly said that the diplomatic crisis caused by the tearing up of the contract is not a "French problem" but a "European problem", and Europeans must remain firm and united, and this submarine crisis has sounded the alarm for Europe's strategic autonomy.
Su Xiaohui believes that Biden's inauguration has not brought US-EU relations out of the haze. America's European allies are finding themselves downgraded in the overall U.S. strategic deployment. This downgrade is manifested in the fact that the United States prefers Europe to cooperate with the strategic goals of the United States, help the United States build a more solid presence in the Indo-Pacific, and ultimately realize the eastward shift of the strategic center of gravity of the United States, rather than the United States to increase investment in Europe.
At the same time, in the process of getting along with the United States, European allies have not received the goodwill from the United States that they expected. The collapse of the United States from Afghanistan and the "insertion" of France by the United States have made European allies realize that in the future, when the United States implements its strategic goals, it is only a pawn that it can sacrifice at will.
Can NATO become the "NATO of Europe"?
The outside world has noted that in the US-France joint statement, Biden stressed that European defense is complementary to NATO. However, the French defense minister said that NATO member states should respond to the German-French initiative and revise nato's strategic concept. According to the outside world, France's move is to hope that NATO will become "Europe's NATO".
As early as 2007, eu countries launched the initiative of "permanent structural cooperation", with the continuous refinement of the mechanism, has covered various areas of operations, weapons and equipment research and development, joint combat exercises, if further implemented and expanded, can form a military system and mechanism independent of NATO and the transatlantic alliance, that is, abandon the United States and Britain, to achieve European independent defense.
After being "inserted" by the United States, Paris accelerated the promotion of defense independence related movements, but Su Xiaohui believes that france is difficult to achieve its goals in the short term. On the one hand, a considerable number of countries within NATO still believe that NATO's main task is to deal with the so-called "Russian threat", on the other hand, there have been voices within NATO calling for unity. More importantly, if you want to build an independent European defense force, you also need a lot of resources and money as a guarantee, which is almost an insurmountable task for France in the short term.
(Look at the news Knows reporter: Fang Yuan)