As expected, the AUKUS agreement (USA, Australia and the United Kingdom) is being discussed in the EU, at this stage at the level of Foreign Ministers. To be precise, they will meet in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly . Although it was stated that ” this is not an extraordinary meeting, convened specifically for the AUKUS agreement, but an established meeting” it is clear that this is not the case.
France has made no secret of its intention to turn the problem into a Euro-American one and is already moving diplomatically within the EU to prepare the ground. It is also favored by the climate of discontent in almost all European capitals, not so much by the AUKUS agreement itself, but by the fact that Washington has completely and offensively bypassed Europeans.
On the surface the problematic relationship between Paris – London
Among other things, AUKUS brought to the surface the long-standing problematic relationship between France and Britain. Instead of London trying to drop the tone, as Canberra did, but also Washington, it has gone on the counterattack. The occasion was given by the statement of the French Foreign Minister, who described Britain as “the last wheel of the carriage” , accusing the Johnson government of opportunism and trying to show that it exists in the international system after Brexit.
His British counterpart raised his glove. In a letter to the Telegraph, Liz Tras responded that her country is “a world leader and ready to defend itself against any threat .” Of course, the British may want to see their country through its imperial past, but it is commonplace that such statements have nothing to do with today's miserable reality.
In Paris, the three are accused of not only excluding the European Union, but also of doing so in a way that undermines its prestige. Indeed, it became known that the AUKUS agreement “locked” behind the backs of the Europeans last June, at the G7 Summit held in Cornwall hosted by Britain.
“Boomerang” for Biden the actions for the isolation of China
Otherwise, President Biden is following in the footsteps of his predecessor as to what the main threat to the United States is. That is why it primarily seeks the geopolitical and, as far as possible, economic isolation of Beijing. But the facts show that he is doing it the wrong way by turning into a boomerang.
Instead of uniting the entire West around this strategy, in order to oppose a large geopolitical and economic size to the rising China, the Biden government preferred to play with the “cousins”, the Anglo-Saxons. The sequel is known. France is on the rails, but China also shows that it goes beyond their traditional caution and opens the door.
It is clear that AUKUS was not set up on the basis of a realistic reading of the international balance of power, but on the illusion of an American pan-empire. This is the assessment that prevails in Europe, but also in Beijing and Moscow and New Delhi. In other words, President Biden has tripled himself, apparently out of anxiety to divert global attention from the Afghanistan fiasco.
Even if, with a thousand efforts, Washington restores its relations with the Europeans at some point, it will not prevent the fact that all international players realize that they can not trust the Americans. Confirmation of this pervasive impression once again pushes Russia to the side of China and vice versa.
Question whether AUKUS will hold China
In other words, the Americans are contributing their policy to building a superpower in Eurasia, the “global island” of geopolitical theorists. The superpower stems from the marriage of the mighty Russian armed forces, especially the nuclear arsenal, to China's economic power and population. To these must be added Iran's accession to the Chinese sphere of influence, as well as China's apparent penetration into Afghanistan. In short, it creates a nightmarish landscape for the United States.
The last and most important question that arises is by amount, despite the noise it has caused, AUKUS will be crucial in trying to contain China. It may be at the level of political communication, because it distracted attention from the humiliating defeat of the Americans in Afghanistan, but at the operational level, the nuclear-powered submarines that Australia will procure from the United States will not qualitatively change the balance of power.
Source: protothema.gr
