#accelerate#French counterpart#Australia submarine
Liz Truss has been trying to promote the concept of "Global Britain" for two years as Britain's secretary of state for international trade, the French newspaper La Cross reported. It's a diplomatic strategy that prime Minister Boris Johnson has put in place. Within hours on September 15th Mr Truss was "promoted" to replace Dominic Raab as head of the Foreign Office. That evening, Britain announced a new strategic partnership with the United States and Australia, called AUKUS. For her part, Truss is convinced that "great Global Britain is planting flags on The world stage", as she wrote in a column in The Telegraph on The 19th. That comment seems unlikely to improve relations with her French counterpart, Le Drian. In an interview with France2 on Monday, the foreign minister did not try to pull his punches. "We know that they [Britain] have always been opportunistic," he said, explaining the failure to recall the French ambassador. "Besides, Britain is like a redundant player in this whole affair."
"Our British friends have explained to us that they are leaving the EU in order to create a 'global Britain'," continued Clement Beaune, The French government's Secretary of State for European Affairs. But it is clearly a return to the United States and a recognized dependency." In addition to the scrapping of the submarine contract by Australia, Britain's move was also seen as a humiliation by French diplomats. Until then, Paris was convinced that London would remain its closest military partner despite Britain's departure from the EU. "I wouldn't be surprised if France narrowed its scope of cooperation with Britain from now on," commented Rudolf G.Ada, a former German diplomat living in London and author of Brexit: Causes and Effects. In practice, however, London does seek other partners. A week ago, Mr Truss began an online discussion to seek Britain's membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement that has brought together 11 countries from the Americas, Asia and Oceania since 2019. In her view, the AUKUS partnership echoes the same strategic vision and London's desire to join "alliances with like-minded countries based on shared values and interests". Determined to leave the European Union politically, the Brexiteers in power in London are seeking to re-establish Britain as a credible force on the international stage, even if it means adhering firmly to The wishes of the United States. This option certainly has downsides, such as an accelerated American withdrawal from Afghanistan. This has come as a surprise to the British government, which has not yet begun repatriating its own citizens and their Afghan Allies. London seems prepared to pay the price for now. In exchange for what? For Truss, the new strategic partnership, announced on September 15, "is not just foreign policy in the abstract, it works for citizens across the United Kingdom." As evidence of London's determination to tighten its ties with partners, the British government on September 17th awarded a €100m contract to BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce to provide designs and concepts for Britain's next generation of nuclear submarines. So is Britain prepared to withdraw some of the contracts awarded to Paris? In any case, this is probably no coincidence.
