Maintaining unity between Western allies will “require a lot of effort” in light of an unfolding rift between France and members of a new security partnership, Germany’s ambassador to the UK has said.
Andreas Michaelis was responding to France recalling its ambassadors to the US and Australia, after the latter’s government ditched a multi-billion dollar deal with Paris for new nuclear submarines and decided to instead buy ones made with US technology.
The response to the cancelled agreement – resulting from something that has been dubbed the AUKUS partnership, between Australia, the UK, and US – has been described by Sky’s security and defence editor Deborah Haynes as “one of the gravest rifts among allies in living memory”.
The new 🇩🇪 government to be elected on 26/9 will be faced with important strategic discussions. The AUKUS debate illustrates this vividly. 🇩🇪 has always aimed for coherence&unity of the West. It became part of our DNA during the Cold War. This unity will require a lot of effort. https://t.co/nmNEwk6hYP
It comes as Germany’s long-standing chancellor, Angela Merkel, is due to be replaced next weekend by whoever wins federal elections.
Mr Michaelis, referencing Deborah Haynes’ Sky News analysis, said on Twitter: “The new German government to be elected on 26/9 will be faced with important strategic discussions.
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“The AUKUS debate illustrates this vividly. Germany has always aimed for coherence&unity [sic] of the West. It became part of our DNA during the Cold War. This unity will require a lot of effort.”
The decision to pull out its representative in the US, outlined last night by foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on the orders of President Emmanuel Macron, was the first time France has ever recalled its American ambassador.
It means France loses a nearly $100bn Australian dollars (£47bn) deal to build diesel-electric submarines.
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‘AUKUS alliance will bring us closer than ever’
Australia said on Saturday morning it regretted that France was recalling its ambassador, adding that it valued the relationship with France and would keep engaging with Paris on other issues.
A US State Department spokesperson said France was a “vital ally” and the United States would be engaged in the coming days to resolve the differences.
A French foreign ministry statement did not mention the UK, but a diplomatic source said France believed Britain’s joining of the deal was opportunistic.
🇬🇧🇺🇸 are close friends and allies. Great speaking to @SecBlinken on issues including:
🤝Welcoming our new AUKUS partnership 🇬🇧🇺🇸🇦🇺 🇦🇫 Continuing to work together on Afghanistan 🌏Working to deepen trade and security partnerships with our allies pic.twitter.com/giwqWb08ax
After what is believed to be her first call to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the UK’s new foreign secretary, Liz Truss didn’t specifically mention the escalating row in a tweet discussing what the pair talked about.
She did say however that they had both welcomed their “new AUKUS partnership” and talked about future efforts “to deepen… security partnerships with our allies”.
The AUKUS partnership is part of a new strategic Indo-Pacific alliance between the US, Australia and Britain, US President Joe Biden announced last week.
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Did Biden forget Australian PM’s name?
French President Emmanuel Macron has so far not commented directly, but on Friday a top French diplomat spoke anonymously of a “crisis” in relations with the US.
He said that for Paris “this is a strategic question concerning the very nature of the relationship between Europe and the United States about the Indo-Pacific strategy”.
He added that Australia never mentioned to France its wish to shift to nuclear-powered submarines, including during a meeting between Mr Macron and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
The French diplomat said that Mr Macron received a letter from Mr Morrison on Wednesday morning announcing the decision to cancel the submarine deal.
Image: Emmanuel Macron with Boris Johnson and (below) Joe Biden during the G7 summit in Cornwall earlier this year
After the deal was announced, Mr Le Drian told franceinfo radio it was a “brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision” reminiscent of the sort of actions Donald Trump would take.
He said: “I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies. It’s a stab in the back. We created a relationship of trust with Australia, and that trust has been broken.”
The “landmark” UK, US and Australia partnership aims to boost defences and share nuclear submarine secrets at a time of growing concern over China.
China has condemned the agreement, saying the Western powers’ cooperation in nuclear submarines “severely damages regional peace and stability” and “jeopardises the international efforts in promoting the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons”.
London, Canberra and Washington have said they will seek to collaborate in cyber, quantum technologies and artificial intelligence, as well as other underwater capabilities.
The unprecedented Russian drone attacks on Poland are both a test and a warning. How Europe and NATO respond could be crucial to security on this continent.
The Russians are past masters at what’s called “salami slicing”. Tactics that use a series of smaller actions to produce a much bigger outcome that otherwise would have been far more provocative.
Image: Vladimir Putin has a history of testing the West. Pic: Sputnik/Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via Reuters
Putin is good at this.
He used salami slicing tactics masterfully in 2014 with his “little green men” invasion of Crimea, a range of ambiguous military and diplomatic tactics to take control. The West’s confused delay in responding sealed Crimea’s fate.
He has just taken a larger slice of salami with his drone attacks on Poland.
Image: A drone found in a field in Mniszkow, eastern Poland
They are of course a test of NATO’s readiness to deploy its Article 5 obligations. Russia has attacked a member state, allies believe deliberately.
Will NATO trigger the all for one, one for all mechanism in Poland’s defence and attack Russia? Not very likely.
But failing to respond projects weakness. Putin will see the results of his test and plot the next one.
Expect lots of talk of sanctions but remember they failed to avert this invasion and have failed to persuade Russia to reverse it. The only sanctions likely to bite are the ones the US president refuses to approve, on Russia’s oil trade.
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6:16
Russia’s Poland incursion represents ‘new chapter’ in Ukraine war, expert says
So how are the drones also a warning? Well, they pose a question.
Vladimir Putin is asking the West if it really wants to become more involved in this conflict with its own forces. Europeans are considering putting boots on the ground inside Ukraine after any potential ceasefire.
If this latest attack is awkward and complicated and hard to respond to now, what happens if Russia uses hybrid tactics then?
Deniable, ambiguous methods that the Russians excel in could make life very difficult for the alliance if it is embroiled in Ukraine.
Think twice before committing your troops there, Russia is warning the West.
Riot police have clashed with protesters in Paris after they took to the streets in response to calls to ‘Block Everything’ over discontent with the French government.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of the French capital and other cities, including Marseille and Montpellier, in response to the online ‘Bloquons Tout’ campaign, which is urging people to strike, block roads, and other public services.
The government has deployed more than 80,000 officers to respond to the unrest, which has seen 200 arrested nationwide so far, according to police, and comes on the same day the new prime minister is being sworn in.
Demonstrators were seen rolling bins into the middle of roads to stop cars, while police rushed to remove the makeshift blockades as quickly as possible.
Tear gas was used by police outside Paris‘s Gare du Nord train station, where around 1,000 gathered, clutching signs declaring Wednesday a public holiday.
Others in the city blocked the entrance to a high school where firefighters were forced to remove burnt objects from a barricade.
Image: Riot police with shields face off with protesters in Paris. Pic: Reuters
Image: Protesters block the streets in Paris on Wednesday. Pic: AP
Image: “Block Everything” blockade a street in Paris. Pic: Reuters
Image: A protester raises a red flare outside Paris’s Gare du Nord train station. Pic: Reuters
Elsewhere in the country, traffic disruptions were reported on major roads in Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, and Lyon.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told reporters a group of protesters had torched a bus in the Breton city of Rennes.
Image: Protesters fill the streets and block tram lines in Montpellier, southern France. Pic: Reuters
Image: A protester in Montpellier waves a lit flare. Pic: Reuters
Image: Protesters hold a sign that reads: ’10 September public holiday!!’ in Paris. Pic: Reuters
Fourth prime minister in a year
The ‘Block Everything’ rallies come amid spiralling national debt and are similar to the Yellow Vest movement that broke out over tax increases during President Emmanuel Macron’s first term.
‘Bloquons tout’ was first spearheaded online by right-wing groups in May but has since been embraced by the left and far left, experts say.
Image: French outgoing Prime Minister Francois Bayrou (left) with his replacement Sebastien Lecornu at Paris’s Hotel Matignon. Pic: Reuters
Image: Crowds of protesters outside Gare du Nord in Paris. Pic: Reuters
Image: ‘Block Everything’ protesters outside Paris’s Gare du Nord on Wednesday. Pic: Reuters
A teacher, Christophe Lalande, taking part in the Paris protests, told reporters at the scene: “Bayrou was ousted, [now] his policies must be eliminated.”
Elsewhere, union member Amar Lagha said: “This day is a message to all the workers of this country: that there is no resignation, the fight continues, and a message to this government that we won’t back down, and if we have to die, we’ll die standing.”
Image: An explosion caused by an Israeli airstrike in Doha, Qatar. Pic: AP
It’s also shattered the critical sense of trust needed in these fragile ceasefire talks.
Qatar has played a critical role as an intermediary between Israel and Hamas for the last two years and those diplomatic efforts have been blown apart by this unprecedented attack.
Qatar has reacted with absolute fury and it has shocked and angered other Gulf neighbours, who, like Qatar, stake their reputation on being hubs of regional peace and stability.
Donald Trump is clearly unhappy, too. A strike on Qatar – a key American ally and home to Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US military hub in the Middle East – is seen as a dangerous escalation.
There’s no suggestion that permission was sought by Israel from its own closest ally in Washington.
And there’s little clarity if they were even forewarned by the IDF, as the White House said it learned of the attack from its own military.
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0:32
Aftermath of IDF strike on Hamas in heart of Doha
Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, was then tasked with alerting Qatar immediately, but by this point, it was too late.
According to Qatar’s foreign ministry, that call came 10 minutes after the first explosion was heard in Doha.
It’s clear Israel has crossed a huge diplomatic red line here.
Qatar plays a pivotal role on the international stage, punching well above its diplomatic weight for a country of its size.
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What was Israel thinking, carrying out this attack? And was it worth it?
They claim it was a “precise strike”, but none of the Hamas leadership were taken out as they claimed was their objective.
Five lower-ranking officials were killed along with a member of Qatar’s security forces. What it has done is left any hope of ceasefire talks in tatters.
For many, this was a huge miscalculation by Benjamin Netanyahu.