France and China on a rampage with the United States and Great Britain.
The reasons are different, but the diplomatic casus belli is the same: the agreement signed between Washington and London with Australia to give life to the Aukus, a sort of NATO of the Pacific, which includes - among other things - the sale of nuclear-powered submarines in Canberra, a technology Washington had so far shared only with London.
Open up heaven. With this move, the Paris government has in fact lost a billionaire contract for the supply of submarines to Australia, also complaining about the fact that it has not been informed of anything. And it has called its ambassadors to the US and Australia for consultations.
To try to reassure the Elysée, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tried to explain: "Our relationship with France remains solid as a rock. We are shoulder to shoulder with the French in many military theaters: both in the operations we conduct together in the Sahel against the Malian terrorists, both in Estonia where we are carrying out the largest NATO operation on the border with Russia ”.
For its part, Beijing has instead expressed concern about an "extremely irresponsible" initiative, which - in the words of Chinese diplomacy spokesman Zhao Lijian - "seriously undermines regional peace and stability, intensifies the arms race and undermines international efforts. of nuclear non-proliferation ".
And precisely China, after the announcement of the birth of the Aukus (acronym of the three allied countries) by the American president Joe Biden, has already made a counter-move, officially submitting the application to join the "Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement ", the free trade agreement of 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific area, an evolution of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) wanted by former US President Barack Obama precisely to contain Beijing but from which the US had then withdrawn with Donald Trump's arrival at the White House in 2017.
(Unioneonline / lf)
