Emmanuel Macron has once again reacted to France’s loss of the Australian submarine contract to the United States. “When we are under the effect of pressure from powers which sometimes harden, reacting, showing that we also have with us the power and the capacity to defend ourselves, it is not giving in to escalation, it is simply make us respect ”, hammered the French President during a press conference with the Greek Prime Minister.
He called on Europeans to “get out of naivety” by “drawing the consequences” of the new strategic choices of the United States. “The United States of America are great historical friends and allies in terms of values, but we are forced to note that for more than ten years, the United States initially focused on itself, and strategic interests which are reorienting themselves towards China and the Pacific ”, he underlined. “It’s their right, it’s their own sovereignty. But here too we would be naive, or we would make a terrible mistake, not to want to draw all the consequences for ourselves ”, he insisted, on the occasion of the signing of a contract with the Strike. sale of three frigates.
“Show that we have the capacity to defend ourselves”
“It is with the same pragmatism and the same lucidity that we as Europeans must take our share of our own protections. It is not an alternative to the alliance with the United States, not a substitution, it is to assume this European pillar within the framework of NATO. “” We are asked to take more responsibility for our own protection, I think that is legitimate; it is therefore up to us to do so. “
The September 15 announcement of a strategic partnership between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, which resulted in the cancellation of a French submarine mega-contract in Canberra, sparked a major diplomatic crisis between France and the United States.