Me too is surprised on Australia's tough stance towards China. In the past one or two decades I would have expected - and said so - that sooner or later they would somewhat disconnect from their ties to the UK and the US and learn to fall in line much more with Chinese demands, due to their geographical vicinity to them. That they accept escalation now and not blindly appease Bejing even when it sees them suffering unfriendly economic consequences is something I did not expect. I admit that I seem to have been fundamentally wrong there. If this stance lives beyond the current Australian administration, of course. Honestly said I have not even a clue on the swing and moods of the Australian politlical landscape.
On france, it is not so much about the lost money form the submarine contract. France has so many debts and sees Germany finally agreeing to form a debt union in the ECB zone with the collectivization of debts at the cost of the net paying nations, that this deal does not really matter. For france it is about its absurd stance of seeing itself still as a globally important power - ironically France practices
in extremis what it and what the EU accuses brexiting UK heavily of: to think and act as if the UK still had a great empire and a higher fleet, rviving the glory of the past. Well, the Brits could take lessons from the French in this. France has ambitions and poses in a way that economically and fiscally it cannot afford. It sees the EU as a vehicle for implementing French claims for leadership, and French interests. But it cannot finance these by its own means, it needs Germany to pay parts of its bills for the French. Thats the Germans that twice rolled over them and plowed them under with ease although the French army was superior. France still wants to sit at the table with the global great players - question is whether it really belongs there. It has one of the only two really war-ready and capable armies in the EU - oh wait, the other has just brexitted away, I always forget that... -, but it has not really the economic strength to maintain and support its claimed role. What Biden did now is to show them how small and relatively unimportan they really are. And thats a narcisstic offence they find hard to take. Even more so since they fpoudn themselve sunable to get out of WWII "victoriously" without massive aid and assistance from the UK and the US.
But I am wondering anyway. Biden again and again has said he sees China as a rival and the challenge - I assume he also implied the military dimension there - of the future, and that it cannot be a partner - as Merkel wanted it to make appear (once again in vein, obviously).
Does nobody in Europe listen when Biden talks about China...??? Or do the Europeans think he is kidding? France could have seen this coming. Washington does not take France or Brussel too serious. because it has no reason to do so. Europe is too weak. Soft power does not score against a violent regime ready to use brutal force instead of endless streams of kind wordings.
Great scene.
It was a
French who said "States have no friends. States have interests." And France all too often acts accordingly, in the EU and in Europe. Now a bigger bully came along and kicked them on the nose. And there is nothing they can do. Big lament!
Paris also could have seen it coming due to its own performance in fullfilling that contract's conditions. Delays and delays and spoiled time tables, I am pretty sure they enforced these intentionally to keep australia unfit to seriously pose a challenge to China so that France and the EU could keep "relevant" as a mediator in the region even while not being strong themselves, and doing trade with china. France wanted a weak Australia. Like it wants a weak Britain and an America that Europe turns away from - and instead turns to Paris.
My sympathy for France in this story is nill. And I cannot accuse the leaders of three other nations that are not my nation for keeping up what they see as their nations interests. Thats what they have sworn an oath to do and thats what they are obligated to do by their nation's respective laws and constitutions. Paris thought it had good cards and overplayed its hand. And of course its the guilt of the others.
