My take on France's decision to recall its Ambassador to the United States. Is Paris overreacting ? The answer is no. A 🧵 on the real reasons behind the French decision.
This is not about France's bruised ego. Nor only about a cancelled armament contract. This is about **trust** between supposed "oldest" allies.
The US-UK-Australian partnership was months in the making. Washington was an active player in this new alliance and deliberately conceal from Paris these discussions, even though it knew it directly affected French national interests.
Over the past few months, French officials at the highest level raised the question of the 🇦🇺🇫🇷 submarine contract with the Biden administration which reassured Paris on this issue.
https://twitter.com/RymMomtaz/status/1438918338416107522?s=20
But at the end of the day, Paris was presented with a fait accompli and learned from media that a crucial partnership for its Indo-Pacific strategy was now a thing of the past.
This is a true breach of trust. U.S. behavior is seen in Paris as unilateral and brutal. A reminiscence of the Trump administration.
The only way to ensure that Washington understand the gravity of this crisis was to make this diplomatic move. Communiqués were not enough. And mild reassurances from the U.S. administration neither.
Now, we should remain cool-headed. Paris is not breaking its diplomatic ties with Washington. Nor France is expelling U.S. diplomats. France already took similar decisions in the past (with Italy in 2019 or Turkey in 2020) to send a cristal clear signal.
Let's hope that the Biden administration will understand that its decision to negotiate in secret a partnership at the expense of a key ally was a bad call and will have lasting effects on its relation with France. [End]
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