After the United States essentially negated a multimillion dollar deal with France and Australia when it gifted Australia better submarines than the ones Australia was set to buy, the EU has take the side of France in the affair ,who remains a disgruntled broker.
The mere choice of taking a public side by the EU is news in and of itself, but choosing France over America while doing so is a pretty strong message that Europe no longer wishes to mostly reflect American foreign policy.
This most likely is the fruit of a perception from Europe that America no longer represents the fundamental economic power of the world anymore. With China, and even India, rising in economic signficance, opportunities for economic winfall are increasingly no more overwhelmingly American.
EU backs France in submarine dispute, asking: Is America back?
From www.reuters.com
2021-09-21 12:21:00
Excerpt:
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 20 (Reuters) – European Union foreign ministers expressed support and solidarity with France on Monday during a meeting in New York to discuss Australia’s scrapping of a $40 billion submarine order with Paris in favor of a U.S. and British deal.
Speaking after the closed-door meeting on the sidelines annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “more cooperation, more coordination, less fragmentation” was needed to achieve a stable and peaceful Indo-Pacific region where China is the major rising power.
Australia said last week it would cancel an order for conventional submarines from France and instead build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with U.S. and British technology after striking a security partnership with those countries under the name AUKUS. read more
“Certainly, we were caught by surprise by this announcement,” Borrell said.
The decision enraged France and earlier on Monday in New York French Foreign…
