Submarine crisis: “Europeans must get out of naivety” vis-à-vis the United States and “be resisted – franceinfo

“Europeans must come out of naivety” in “drawing the consequences” new strategic choices of the United States, declared Tuesday, September 28 President Emmanuel Macron. “When we are under the effect of pressure from powers that sometimes harden, reacting, showing that we also have the power and the ability to defend ourselves is not giving in to escalation, it is simply making us respect “, he hammered during a press conference with the Greek Prime Minister, in reaction to the loss by France of the Australian contract for submarines to the benefit of the United States.

During the same press conference, Emmanuel Macron and Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the signing of a military contract for the order by Athens of three frigates as part of the reinforcement of the “strategic partnership” between France and Greece. The acquisition by Greece of three Belharra frigates to be built in France, in Lorient, for several billion euros, is a “testimony of confidence and demonstration of the quality of the French offer”, said Emmanuel Macron. The French President also stressed that this strengthened partnership represents a “first daring step towards European strategic autonomy”, a theme he is trying to address in the face of the evolution of American foreign policy, which is refocusing its strategic priorities on China.