Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Siasat United States of America (US) in the Indo-Pacific with its allies to curb power China through a military approach is considered inconsistent with the stance of the European Union countries. Moreover, the tactics of Uncle Sam’s country began with an attempt to injure one member of the European Union: France.
Even though he was optimistic about the US President Joe Biden, concerns the European Union “left behind” the US is now getting stronger. They were disappointed when the US decided to establish submarine cooperation with English and Australia without the knowledge of France.
The Washington Post noted, this concern has actually been raised since 2011, when President Barack Obama announced that the US would shift its focus to the Indo Pacific.
When the reins of government rolled into the hands of President Donald Trump, the US attitude towards the European Union became increasingly apparent. In 2018, Trump made a very controversial statement.
“I think we have a lot of enemies. I think the European Union is an enemy, in terms of what they do to us on trade,” Trump said.
At that time, Trump also supported Britain to leave the European Union, aka Brexit. The European Union sees the US moving further away from its bloc.
Now, the European Union is angry because the US is partnering with Britain to establish cooperation with Australia on nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS agreement.
Their main goal is to stem China’s power in the region. But as it turned out, the deal hurt the French who felt betrayed. The reason is, before AUKUS was agreed, Australia suspended the submarine cooperation agreement with France.
In his writing on The Washington Post, an expert on American politics from Princeton University, Sophie Meunier, said that the AUKUS agreement tore the French confidence.
“Many in France see the AUKUS submarine deal as confirmation that the United States is no longer trustworthy, even after the Trump era,” Meunier wrote.
France was actually optimistic when Biden was sworn in as US president. At that time, a Pew survey indicated an increase in French public acceptance of the US by 34 points.
French diplomats had even wanted to establish close cooperation with the US in matters of climate change to terrorism, as well as the threat from China.
“But it turns out, they instead see America taking unilateral decisions without consultation. This unilateral decision may be able to revive anti-American sentiment in France and beyond,” wrote Meunier.
Furthermore, Luke McGee in his analysis at CNN stated that the US deal confused Europe with their approach to China.
The different approaches of the European Union and the US-UK to China, read on to the next page…
The European Union Feels Disregarded in the Region
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