Background of France’s outrage at the launch of AUKUS, the new alliance between the U.S., Britain and Australia

On September 22 (U.S. time), U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron held a hurried phone conversation. This was proposed by President Biden and responded to by President Macron.

President Biden apologizes to furious France

At this meeting, President Biden effectively “apologized.

The problem began on September 15, when the U.S., Britain, and Australia announced the launch of a new security framework, AUKUS, without any prior notice to other allies.

Then there was Australia’s decision to unilaterally break a contract with a French company to develop and build submarines, and to work with the United States and Britain to develop new submarines. This infuriated France, and the ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia were sent back to France in an unprecedented protest.

In a telephone conversation on April 22, President Biden admitted that he had made a mistake in his attitude toward France, reaffirmed France’s strategic importance in the Indo-Pacific region, and promised to openly discuss matters of strategic interest in the future.

In response, President Macron decided to send his ambassador to the U.S. back to Washington, and a face-to-face summit was scheduled for October. In short, President Biden’s “apology” has somehow put President Macron in a better mood.

In any case, France’s anger with the U.S., which had worsened to the point where the French ambassador to the U.S. was summoned, has subsided somewhat, and the two countries have begun to move in the direction of reconciliation. The two countries are NATO allies, and although they may quarrel temporarily, in the end they are in the same camp.

However, France was also responsible for the submarine contract. In 2016, Australia signed a contract with a French company for cooperation in the development and construction of 12 conventional-powered submarines, but the project was progressively delayed due to a lack of technology on the French side, and the total amount of the contract, which was about 4 trillion yen at the time, jumped to about 7 trillion yen.

In the midst of this situation, the political conflict between Australia and China intensified. In response to China’s increasing strength in maritime warfare, Australia made the decision to drop its conventional-powered submarines and acquire eight new ones. It approached the United States via the United Kingdom, and negotiations proceeded in secret, leading to this announcement.

France’s unilateral rejection of a big business deal involving the entire nation was not just about money. But it is not only about money that the French are furious. They are also concerned that they have been excluded from the international security framework.

The AUKUS this time encompasses new technology development and economic fields, but the main focus is the military alliance. Originally, the U.K. and U.S. had a military alliance under NATO, and the U.S. and Australia are also bound by the ANZUS (U.S.-Australia-New Zealand Security Treaty), but now the three countries have declared further cooperation.

The announcement was made suddenly without any prior notice to the other allies, which means that NATO members and other allies were neglected.

Western unity against China will not break down.

France has always aspired to have its own political influence, and has actively participated in and contributed to US-led interventions in international conflicts. It dispatched its own troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, and has played a major role as a major Western power. Yet, the Biden administration unilaterally forced a poor withdrawal from Afghanistan, and now, in the Indo-Pacific region, it has been forced to create an alliance that unilaterally excludes itself from the military framework against China without any consultation.

In order to counter the hegemonic China, multilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region has emerged as an issue for the West as a whole, and France has been actively participating in joint exercises and “Operation Freedom of Navigation” by dispatching its military forces. From the French point of view, it is difficult to accept the AUKUS announcement, which seems to have been made out of thin air.

However, this does not mean that France is going to join forces with China. China remains a major global problem, and it is clear that France will side with the U.S., Britain, and Australia on this issue, so there will not be a rupture that would destroy the unity of the West.

The unity of the democratic camp is important not only for the issue of China, but also to counter the threat of the growing collaboration between China, Russia, Iran and other despotic countries. The U.S. and France must both understand this, and the quick restoration of relations is not so surprising.

Australia’s “promotion to the first team

It is true that the launch of the AUKUS and President Biden’s hasty actions on the submarine issue had a negative effect on the unity of the West, but that was only a problem of methods, such as a lack of laying the groundwork, and the fact is that the AUKUS is extremely effective.

In fact, it is probably China that is most reluctant to create AUKUS. The military alliance between the U.S., U.K., and Australia would be a formidable wall standing in its way.

There are multilateral cooperation frameworks to deal with China, such as QUAD (Japan-US-Australia-India Strategic Dialogue) and FOIP (Free and Open Indo-Pacific), but they are mainly for economic security, not military alliance. In this respect, AUKUS is close to a de facto trilateral military alliance.

And for the Chinese military strategy, it is a more direct threat than the French military presence. France is a military power, but China is far away. It has limited forces to devote to the Indo-Pacific on a daily basis.

Australia, by comparison, is inferior to France in terms of strength, but it is directly in front of the Chinese military’s maritime advance. If Australia strengthens its own capabilities and expands its role as a sortie base for U.S. forces, it will become a serious eyesore for China. In particular, if the Royal Australian Navy were to operate attack submarines in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean, the deployment range of China’s carrier forces and submarines would be limited.

In fact, the AUKUS has a great significance in that Australia, which had been treated as a “second force” until now, has been “promoted” to a “first force” in response to the need of the times to contain the Chinese military.

Anglo-Saxon alliance “5 Eyes” blood ties

AUKUS means AU (Australia) + UK (United Kingdom) + US (United States), but before that, there was already an agreement called UKUSA (read as YUKUSA). Today, it is better known by its common name, “Five Eyes” (meaning classified information that can only be viewed by five countries), but its official name is the UKUSA Agreement, and the origin of the name is UK+USA.

The UK-USA Agreement is an agreement for the sharing of classified information and joint intelligence operations, which was established when the joint Anglo-American operation to intercept communications against Germany during World War II turned into an operation against the Soviet Union after the war ended. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand joined the pact during the Cold War. All of these English-speaking nations, mostly Anglo-Saxon, are tightly united. These five countries are not just intelligence partners, but are also substantial political allies, and their sense of closeness and trust in each other is overwhelmingly stronger than that of NATO. In other words, it is a “blood bond.

Its members almost unconditionally support U.S.-led interventions in the international community. UKUSA (Five Eyes) is not just a club for sharing classified information, but it is more like a political alliance than a military alliance (although cooperation with New Zealand, which has a non-nuclear policy, is partially limited).

However, the five countries are not equal. The United States, with its overwhelming military strength, is still at the top of the list, followed by the United Kingdom, which has publicly stated its “special relationship” with the United States. The other three countries were clearly inferior in terms of capability.

Japan’s response is ostensibly “delicate.

However, the strategic importance of Australia, which is located directly in front of China, has increased dramatically. Therefore, it makes sense to strengthen Australia’s capability and upgrade it to a leading role in the alliance.

Although the Japanese government has expressed its welcome to AUKUS in terms of strengthening its involvement in the Indo-Pacific region (at press conferences held by Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato and Foreign Minister Motegi), it has taken a subtle stance of not expressing a positive attitude, basically because it avoids involvement in confrontations between other countries as much as possible. Nevertheless, the threat of the Chinese military is real and must be contained throughout the Indo-Pacific. A strong AUKUS, if it works, will be a big plus for Japan’s security.

Buntaro Kuroi: Born in 1963. Military journalist. Based in Moscow, New York, and Cairo, he has covered many conflict zones. Has written numerous books on military and intelligence topics. Author of numerous books on military and intelligence-related topics. His latest book Super Geopolitics to Decipher! A Map Book of Taboos” (Takarajimasha).