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The French president said Europe must develop its own military capability as the United States focuses on the Indo-Pacific region.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said Europe must stop being naïve when it comes to defending its interests and developing its own military capacity after a new security pact led to a transatlantic diplomatic crisis.
Paris reacted with fury after Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States announced a trilateral agreement for the Indo-Pacific region, dubbed AUKUS, earlier this month.
The deal led Australia to end a multibillion-dollar deal with France to build conventional submarines. Instead, it will buy at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with American and British technology.
Speaking publicly for the first time on the issue, Macron on Tuesday called for more European autonomy as Washington increasingly focuses on the Indo-Pacific region, where China’s growing influence worries Western powers. .
“Europeans must stop being naive,” he said at a press conference in Paris after concluding an agreement with Athens worth around 3 billion euros (3.51 billion euros). dollars) to supply Greece with French frigates.
“When we are under pressure from the powers… we have to react and show that we have the power and the capacity to defend ourselves. Don’t make things worse, but protect ourselves.
“Our own protection”
Macron, speaking alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said the United States was “great friends and historic allies in terms of values.”
But he also warned that European leaders “must see that for more than 10 years Americans have focused first on themselves and have strategic interests reoriented towards China and the Pacific”.
“We must, as Europeans, participate in our own protection,” Macron said.
“It is not a question of an alternative to the American alliance, nor of a substitute, but of assuming the responsibility of the European pillar within NATOHe added, citing the transatlantic security alliance.
France took the unprecedented step of recalling its ambassador to the United States a fortnight ago in response to AUKUS, saying it was blinded by the deal.
But after Macron and US President Joe Biden held talks by telephone last week, Paris announced that Ambassador Philippe Etienne would resume his duties.
Etienne will return to Washington on Wednesday with a “clear mandate,” Macron announced on Tuesday.
French and US leaders also pledged to continue consultations aimed at building confidence among longtime allies.
They will speak again in mid-October, ahead of an in-person meeting scheduled for late next month in Europe.
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