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If the US and EU were divided on China, Aukus ‘betrayal’ just dug the trenches deeper
- ‘Humiliating’ news of the 3-way security deal showed the European Union the US was ready to risk old alliances to ‘get at’ China
- Despite ‘wearying’ US prodding to the contrary, and shared economic and military concerns, Brussels is determined to plough an independent furrow on China
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It was not a phone call from one of his American, Australian or British counterparts that informed the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell about a new Anglophonic defence alliance designed to tackle China.
Rather, one of his colleagues sent him a news story outlining the details via WhatsApp, to which Borrell responded with a curt: “Caray” – a Spanish exclamation loosely translated as “damn” or “ouch” – according to a source close to the event.
The European Union and even France, which lost to Washington a US$66 billion contract to provide Australia with a fleet of nuclear submarines, were kept in the dark up until the news had been leaked.
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The French described it as “a stab in the back”, while a beleaguered Borrell was sent to launch the EU’s own Indo-Pacific strategy a day later and faced a blizzard of questions on a defence pact he said he had no idea about. Commission sources described it as “humiliating”.
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Perhaps more than anything, the Aukus affair and its continued fallout demonstrate the vastly different positions the EU and US occupy towards China.
In Europe, Washington is seen to view all foreign policy through a Beijing-tinted lens. Its handling of Aukus is seen as proof that it is willing to jeopardise some of its most important relationships to “get at” China.
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