Paris: US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who was on a relationship repair tour of France following its new alliance in Indo-Pacific region and dumping Paris out of the new scheme of things, plays the China card to the hilt to pacify the angry French media. The France-USA relationship has hit an all time low after France was kept in dark by the USA, United Kingdom and Australia over supply of nuclear submarines to Australia.
In an interview, interviewer Anne-Sophie Lapix of France 2 TV pointedly told him on October 5, 2021 that three weeks ago was the beginning of the crisis when the announcement came that the Australians had breached their contract with France.
She said the “contract of the century”, worth 35 billion euros, ended at the same time as the announcement of the purchase of American submarines. At that time, the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, expressed France’s anger and incomprehension. He described it as “a low blow”, of “Trump without the tweets.”
Lapix asked Blinken whether he understood that France felt betrayed by the Americans.
In his reply, all that Blinken could say was that “we should have done better in terms of communication”. He said did spend an hour alone with Jean-Yves Le Drian – “a friend, not only a colleague, but a longtime friend, for whom I have a great deal of respect – and then indeed to be able to spend time with the President of the Republic (Emmanuel Macron)”.
The excuse made Lapix quip: “And we expected better, especially with the change of administration, and especially with you. You speak French. You are a Francophile. We expected a better dialogue.”
Blinken talked about coordination and cooperation on Sahel, “where there is already a very important partnership that is going to deepen, or the Euro-Atlantic area and its security issues, including both European capacity and then the renewal of NATO — issues that according to him were the most important issues binding the two countries.
This prompted Lapix remind Blinken that Macron had declared NATO “braindead” two years ago, and that France still had the feeling that the United States is withdrawing from the core issues (Sahel, the Indo-Pacific, and the transatlantic issues) and “leaving France to hold the bag”.
“It is not at all a question of disengagement, on the contrary,” Blinken argued. He stressed that there was a commitment defined through alliances, through partnerships, through international institutions. “If we define engagement as how many troops you have in such and such a place. That’s one question. If we define engagement by what your diplomatic, political, and economic engagement with your allies and partners is, then I believe that we are very committed.”
Lapix though said there now a feeling in France today that what interests the United States is above all the Indo-Pacific area with the new alliance with the Australians and the English in face of a rising China.
Blinken said the relationship with China, for us, or for France, or for many other countries, was a “very complex relationship, which carries enormous consequences.” According to him there were aspects of competition, aspects of cooperation, and aspects of conflict. “But whether it is cooperation, competition, or conflict, our interest is to be able to do this work together with others, with our partners and our allies, to face the challenges but also find a way to work with China, which is also essential,” Blinken stressed. Ostensibly invoking the China fear card without naming Beijing, he said: “we have a deep interest in working especially with our allies and partners to try to deal with the biggest problems of the day, which is not a job for one country alone. But it takes commitment. Because if we are not committed, if we do not try, with France, with our other partners, to define the world we want in the future, one of two things: either someone else will do it, and probably this will not serve our best interests and our values, or no one will, and then we will have the law of the jungle, which we have seen in the past that does not work out well.”
– global bihari bureau
