Normalien, associate of philosophy, Jean-Loup Bonnamy is a specialist in political philosophy.
In the excellent comic strip
Quai d'Orsay
, we learned, between two slamming doors and a quote from Heraclitus, that French diplomats and collaborators of the Minister of Foreign Affairs love puns. In particular, it is customary that each time they hear the word "NATO", they exclaim "
NATO suspend your flight
" or "
NATO with the wind.
". If these jokes have burst forth in recent days, this time they must have made the French laugh yellow, who did not have the heart to have too much fun. Indeed, during his trip to Europe in June 2021 (G7 summit, then NATO summit in Brussels, finally American-Russian meeting in Geneva), which constitutes his first trip abroad since his election, Joe Biden does not will not meet Emmanuel Macron face to face.
Nor will he meet with a leader of the community bodies of the European Union. On the other hand, the President of the United States met face to face with Boris Johnson (the Brexit man), Queen Elizabeth II, Erdogan and Vladimir Putin. As Hadrien Desuin writes,
“the premiere is reserved for Boris Johnson, in order to reaffirm the 'special relationship' which forever unites the United Kingdom with the United States. Even leaving the European Union, London retains the attention and consideration of Washington. The Brexiters leader was prophesied of isolation and banishment, and he is rewarded with the first foreign visit of the new President of the United States.
"
Joe Biden thus means to the EU that it does not count. By meeting Boris Johnson and the Presidents of Turkey and Russia (two authoritarian, populist and nationalist leaders), he shows that he only respects countries that want to continue to exist as nations, rather than dissolving in a deep sea of water. supranational acid, and who play the card of the balance of power and the defense of their interests. A divided, technocratic, soulless and historyless European Union, which ignores power and believes only in law and the market, has little interest for Joe Biden. All the more so since the EU has always shown itself to be slavish atlantic. We have been told for decades that there is strength in unity and that to count against the Americans, the EU is essential.The Biden-Johnson meeting proves the fallacy of this assertion. And by swearing only by the EU, Emmanuel Macron makes people forget that he is the president of France and therefore makes himself insignificant in the eyes of Biden, who nevertheless has distant French origins.
President Macron constantly talks about building a European defense that would allow NATO to escape.
But since the departure of the British, France is the only country in the EU to have a valid army and, on the other hand, France is the only country to believe in this idea of European defense.
For other EU members, starting with Germany, European defense is called “NATO” and “American military umbrella”.
For the first time in a speech to NATO, an American president addressed the issue of the Chinese threat.
Jean-Loup Bonnamy
In addition, during the NATO summit, Biden wanted to show that the Trump era, isolationist, was over, that the United States would return to the fundamentals of the NATO alliance and take the lead of the Western camp. He thus assured that the mutual defense pact which founds NATO was "
a sacred obligation
For the United States and that they would therefore go to war in the event of Russian aggression against the Baltic countries. In keeping with Wilson's legacy and unlike Trump, Biden has a moralizing and messianic vision, seeing the United States as a new Jerusalem to export democracy and human rights and guide the world in the face of the dangers that threaten it. . But Biden, on the other hand, followed Trump on another issue: that of the Chinese threat. For Biden, as for his predecessor, China is today the main adversary of the United States. And Biden's will is to make NATO (which is historically an anti-Russian alliance) an anti-China alliance (whereas so far NATO is an Atlantic organization, which does nothas nothing to do with China). For the first time in a speech to NATO, an American president addressed the issue of the Chinese threat.
As for Russia, Biden is torn between two options. Option one: treat Russia as an enemy. It would then be a question of confronting a Russian-Chinese bloc. Exactly like in World War I when the Western powers faced the bloc formed by Germany and Austria-Hungary. This is not to displease many of the American elites shaped by forty-five years of the Cold War. Nor to the Polish-Lithuanian American pressure group, very influential and very hostile to Russia. Nor to human rights defenders. And the Russian cyberattacks in the United States or the mistreatment inflicted on the opponent Alexeï Navalny are bringing water to the mill of the supporters of this option. So Biden said Putin was "
a killer
". Second option: consider that Russia is much closer culturally to the West than to China and do everything possible not to throw Russia into the arms of China, which makes good strategic sense. It is this option that Biden will now try (for the moment and in moderation). Hence his meeting with Putin in Geneva on June 16. As Renaud Girard writes in
Le Figaro
, “to
Geneva, Biden did not come to meet Putin empty-handed.
As a gift, he brought him the lifting of American sanctions on the gas pipeline directly connecting Russian and German territories.
The North Stream 2 project will therefore be completed within six months.
In exchange, the tenant of the White House will ask the master of the Kremlin to stop approaching Beijing, which will not fundamentally displease the native Leningrad. ”
Standing up to the United States had not made Gaullian France lose the esteem of Washington.
Jean-Loup Bonnamy
Compared to Turkey, a member of NATO, Biden is also torn. He dislikes Erdogan and is familiar with the financial, friendly and political ties that have long united the Trump and Erdogan families. Senator of Delaware, his stronghold, from 1973 to 2009, he benefited from the vote of the Greek community, very hostile to Turkey. His distrust of the Turks was manifested by the official recognition of the Armenian genocide by the United States (April 2021). But Biden knows he may need Erdogan to form a Ukrainian-Turkish front against Russia and has done nothing to support the Armenians in the face of aggression from Turkey-backed Azerbaijan. If Biden chooses an anti-Russian policy, he will approach Erdogan. If he chooses relaxation with Moscow,he will let go of Erdogan.
As far as they are concerned, Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen should not have forgotten that Americans are ungrateful and despise those who do not stand up to them. On the contrary, Nixon, barely elected in January 1969, rushed to Paris to respectfully meet de Gaulle, who was nevertheless very hostile to American imperialism. The recognition of Communist China, support for French-speaking Quebec, the withdrawal of the integrated NATO command, the request to the American forces to evacuate the bases they occupied in France, the repatriation of the gold stored at the Fed , the remonstrances against the exorbitant privilege of the dollar, the Arab policy of France, the criticism of the attitude of the United States in South America and in Asia, the autonomous dialogue with theUSSR and the communist regimes of central and eastern Europe, all this had not therefore made Gaullian France lose the esteem of Washington.
The alliance must not give way to submission, alignment, blissful and servile fascination or loss of critical thinking.
Because it does not benefit either of the two allies.
Jean-Loup Bonnamy
It is quite normal for France to be the friend and ally of the United States, for Paris to support them if they are attacked, for our country to collaborate with them on security and economic issues. De Gaulle was, moreover, a constant and loyal ally of the United States, supporting them in all serious situations, notably during the Cuban rocket crisis in 1962. If de Gaulle withdrew from NATO's integrated command, he never left NATO as such or the Western camp. Jacques Chirac was at the side of the United States after September 11, 2001, engaging the French army in Afghanistan, which did not prevent him from courageously opposing the catastrophic invasion of Iraq in 2003. Our two countries belong in the same civilizational space (theWest) and share the same values (notably democracy and freedom). We must unite to face the same enemy (jihadism) and contain the expansion of our common adversary (China). Even within the Western world, an American-French axis (two nations in trade deficit) could be welcome to deal with German mercantilism and its insolent trade surpluses. But at no time should the alliance give way to submission, alignment, blissful and servile fascination or loss of critical thinking, because this does not benefit either of the two allies. Being an ally doesn't mean you have to. It is therefore urgent to reconnect with the Gaullist tradition and, without hostility or breaking alliances, to make our difference and our differences heard.
