Thread by @fredericg

I write #PerspectiveandContext on @SubstackInc and @Medium and will try and give both on the #AUKUS security announcement and the spillover negative effect of 🇦🇺reneging on its giant submarine contract with 🇫🇷.

For personal context: I was born in FR&now a dual FR CA citizen.

Background: 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇫🇷 cooperated closely during WW2 in New Caledonia and Noumea became the main rear naval base after Pearl Harbor. 182ndinfantry.org/defending-new-…

#NouvelleCaledonie #Noumea

My take: 🇺🇸 doesn’t respect 🇫🇷’s strategic role in the Pacific region b/c it analyzes, perhaps rightly, that France doesn’t belong there fully and its presence is residual, at best, and post-colonial. I don't agree.

French Polynesia and New Caledonia are fully 🇫🇷 territories but the 🇺🇸 analyzes and considers that they’re already quasi independent.
Both territories enjoy increased autonomy but are still closely tied to 🇫🇷in countless ways, w a premium on military, financial and economic.

IMO this means official DC & the Pentagon thinks it can collaborate w 🇫🇷 in Africa&Mideast yet “stab it in the back” as it forces the ripping up of this giant 🇦🇺🇫🇷military equipment contract worth more than 50B euros.

The intel&military collaboration between 🇫🇷 and 🇺🇸 is deep and already an extension of the 5 Eyes treaty. mainichi.jp/english/articl…

Re ISIS: French forces have killed Adnan Abou Walid al Sahraoui, leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISIS-GS), in a drone strike, the French government announced on Thursday. edition.cnn.com/2021/09/16/afr…

.@JoeBiden specifically mentioned 🇫🇷 as a key ally last night as the #AUKUS was announced. IMO part of the ripping up of the contract will involve recycling part of the already started naval program&🇫🇷 will get a junior partner role. The Pentagon needs 🇫🇷&will do what's needed