{"id":11627,"date":"2021-09-21T11:30:25","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T03:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=11627"},"modified":"2021-09-21T11:30:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T03:30:26","slug":"eu-backs-france-in-submarine-dispute-asking-is-america-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=11627","title":{"rendered":"EU backs France in submarine dispute, asking “is America back”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 21 – European Union foreign ministers expressed support and solidarity with France on Monday during a meeting in New York to discuss Australia’s scrapping of a $40 billion submarine order with Paris in favor of a U.S. and British deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking after the closed-door meeting on the sidelines annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “more cooperation, more coordination, less fragmentation” was needed to achieve a stable and peaceful Indo-Pacific region where China is the major rising power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia said last week it would cancel an order for conventional submarines from France and instead build at least eight\u00a0nuclear-powered submarines<\/a>\u00a0with U.S. and British technology after striking a security partnership with those countries under the name AUKUS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Certainly, we were caught by surprise by this announcement,” Borrell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision enraged France and earlier on Monday in New York French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration of continuing his predecessor Donald Trump’s trends of “unilateralism, unpredictability, brutality and not respecting your partner.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States has sought to assuage the anger in France, a NATO ally. French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden are due to speak on the phone in the next few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are allies, we talk and don’t hide elaborate different strategies. That’s why there is a crisis in confidence,” Le Drian said. “So all that needs clarifications and explanations. It may take time.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Monday that she expected Biden to “reaffirm our commitment to working with one of our oldest and closest partners on a range of challenges that the global community is facing” when he speaks with Macron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"france\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is not clear if the dispute will have implications for the next round of EU-Australia trade talks, scheduled for Oct. 12. Borrell met with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne in New York on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European Council President Charles Michel said that he found it difficult to understand the move by Australia, Britain, and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why? Because with the new Joe Biden administration, America is back. This was the historic message sent by this new administration and now we have questions. What does it mean – America is back? Is America back in America or somewhere else? We don’t know,” he told reporters in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If China was the main focus for Washington then it was “very strange” for the United States to team up with Australia and Britain, he said, calling it a decision that weakened the transatlantic alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top officials from the United States and European Union are due to meet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, later this month for the inaugural meeting of the newly established U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council, but Michel said some EU members were pushing for this to be postponed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 21 – European Union foreign ministers expressed support and solidarity with France…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32.png",780,554,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32-300x213.png",300,213,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32-768x545.png",640,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32.png",640,455,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32.png",780,554,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32.png",780,554,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32.png",780,554,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32.png",780,554,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screen-Shot-2021-09-21-at-11.27.32.png",669,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11629,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11627\/revisions\/11629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}