AUKUS – no EU banner in sight …
Well I nevah! Our Westminster Mandarins are still capable of keeping secrets. They are still extremely adept at ‘hiding’ important news. I concede that military matters should indeed be kept out of the daily gossip round that the various ‘sources’ feed so cleverly into our daily ‘news providers’ but when one sees how quickly ‘other interested parties’ are able to react one wonders if the Whitehall leakers aren’t in fact driving the daily news & gossip rounds and if those intrepid MSM ‘writers’ are either complicit or simply incapable of finding things out unless hand-fed my mandarins.
So – AUKUS. By now you’ll have come across this new acronym. Let’s firstly look at the background and the timeline regarding this new acronym. AUKUS stands for Australia-UK-USA, a new ‘security partnership’ announced late on the 15th September 2021. You can read all the details on the Government website here. It was published on Wednesday evening.
That’s the same Wednesday evening when the Westminster MSM were solely occupied with watching Johnson’s dead-wood cabinet reshuffle. The earliest report I could find was in The Times on Wednesday night (link, paywalled). The DT produced their report early yesterday morning (paywalled link). The various opinion pieces trundled in yesterday evening and early this morning. There were ‘questions’ in the HoC yesterday evening, one from a certain Ms May who asked the prime minister in the Commons about the “implications” of the partnership in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan (link, paywalled).
Mainly, the clutch of MSM opinion piece writers think this treaty is a good thing, some pointing out the advantages of our associating with the USA, others that helping the Aussies against the bully China is jolly good while others describe it as the first fruits of our being ‘Global Britain’ after Brexit. One early assessment – early because it was published yesterday afternoon – mentions China’s reaction while providing some details:
“China on Thursday accused the UK, the US and Australia of fuelling an “arms race” in the Pacific that will make the region more dangerous after the three announced a broad security alliance. The new deal, dubbed Aukus and unveiled on Wednesday, will see London and Washington help Canberra to build nuclear-powered submarines as well as swap knowledge on cyber information, artificial intelligence, undersea technology and other cutting-edge sciences.” (paywalled link)
Later that evening there were also hints that France rather than China was most upset because they wanted to sell their nuclear subs to Oz. In their evening email newsletter, Ms Hardman drew heavily on a paywalled article in the Specie (paywalled link) and wrote:
“And yet the country that is the most vocally angry about the pact today isn’t China – which has branded it ‘irresponsible’ – but France. In signing Aukus, Australia is walking out of a submarine-building contract with the French. And that’s upset French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who said no one had told his country and that the deal was a ‘stab in the back’. There followed an awkward debate between France and the US about whether there had in fact been contact between the countries about the announcement before it took place. France maintains that there wasn’t any warning, while the US claims there was.”
Meanwhile, the BBC preferred reporting this morning that the USA and UK were facing growing international criticism. They also mentioned poor, angry, ‘backstabbed France’ and China’s accusation that the three powers were having a “Cold War mentality”, only to top it with the latest ‘fear propaganda, writing that “the pact has raised fears that it could provoke China into a war.” (link).
Oh dear. Angering France and China – how positively dreadful! The BBC is out of sync with the print media colleagues who think that France’s loss will be our gain (paywalled link) or believe that it’s a much-needed signal to Pacific nations like Japan that the AUKUS allies are intent on deterring China’s aggression (link, paywalled). To counterbalance this fear mongering, here’s an assessment by an Aussie – worth reading in full.
And so to the utterly delicious report on the reaction from the EU. It’s something you really couldn’t make up in your wildest dreams. This morning we read in RemainCentral – where else! – that the Dutch PM, Mr Rutte, who is visiting Johnson today, “will invite Britain to join deal [sic!] with EU” (link, paywalled). This will be ‘a pact with the European Union on defence and security co-operation’. Allegedly France and Germany ‘support this initiative’ because, also allegedly, Johnson is now ‘more receptive’, being less enamoured of Biden. And then there’s the inevitable ‘diplomatic source’, telling The Times’ Brussels correspondent:
“Since Brexit, not enough European leaders have been in touch with Johnson. It is important to look at the geopolitics without being divided and there is a need to work with the UK.” (link, paywalled)
Well I nevah! How exquisitely extraordinary! This ‘change of mind’, or rather waking up to harsh realities, especially after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, is already bearing fruit:
“In a mark of how seriously the Europeans are taking the possibility of talks, the EU has adopted a conciliatory tone over Northern Ireland customs controls to avoid a confrontation. Rutte will make the offer despite French anger over a security pact between Australia, the US and Britain. The EU regards the issue as primarily a trade dispute over Australia’s decision to drop a submarine contract with France rather than a strategic question.” (link, paywalled)
Well well well! Macron must be severely unamused by this approach from his EU neighbours, even though he is supporting this proposed ‘EU Deal’, for an obvious reason:
“Dutch, French and other European governments back greater co-operation with Britain to overcome European dependency on the US for airlifts, evacuation of nationals and emergency humanitarian assistance. Doing a deal with the UK is integral to European plans to develop a rapid reaction force to intervene independently of the US to ensure aid is delivered and evacuations carried out in a crisis.” (link, paywalled)
Savour this: Brussels wants to do a deal with Brexit UK! I hope Frosty is taking notice. Of course, RemainCentral could not resist mentioning that a Remain Tory – Tom Tugendhat, in case you wondered – would support such ‘closer relationship with European allies to reduce dependency on the US.’ Why we need Brussels for that rather than unilateral treaties – heh, once Remain, always ‘Pro-EU’. How valuable such alliance would be – not! – is nicely illustrated by the EU’s official assessment of AUKUS:
“The EU yesterday expressed “regret” that neither the Americans nor the British had consulted European capitals over the new alliance with Australia to counter China but it played down the significance of the row.” (link, paywalled)
Aww, diddums! So Brussels still regards itself as arbiter on what we, post-Brexit, can do while trying to minimise their usual anti-UK stance. Well, ‘tis because they want something from us – simple as that. I just love this remark of the EU’s ‘Foreign Secretary’, Mr Borrell, saying: “I understand the extent to which the French government must be disappointed. We regret not being informed.” (link, paywalled)
Well – tough! Let’s also not forget that, thanks to the general election in Germany in a few days their influence on EU policies is going to be much weakened, not least because of their obsession with green stuff. At the same time M Macron has his hands full with his general elections early next year, just at the time he’s going to ‘preside’ over the EU from January to July 2022.
Isn’t it wonderful how suddenly all those Remainers in the Westminster MSM are more concerned with that new, international ‘security partnership’ rather than what Brussels says or Macron wants. Even more delicious is that the mighty EU is suddenly trying to cling to our coattails – and all that after years of them telling us that, after Brexit, we’re going to be an insignificant little island of no account. My, haven’t times changed …
KBO!
Photo by UK Prime Minister
It is a shame the U.S. are part of AUKUS. Otherwise I like the sound of it.
Up yours E.U.. The E.U. has no right to have a Foreign Secretary to my mind. Surely that is something a Nation has.
Do we think the E.U. is breaking up? If so, it is sooner than I expected.
B.T.W. I understand Australia has loads of accessible uranium. What a shame Australia has become a Covid Dictatorship.
Also It’s a shame it takes a long time to process uranium into available nuclear fuel for nuclear power. (To keep our lights on and industry running.)
Off today’s topic, but important.
https://joannenova.com.au/2021/09/uttar-pradesh-india-wipes-out-covid-with-ivermectin/
Ivermectin; no wonder government prevented it use.
Since when did deterring a bully become a provocation, rather than a sensible pre-emptive move to AVOID aggression? These Lefties never miss an opportunity to show how they hate our country. There is a word for giving succour (even if it is only verbally) to one’s country’s enemies. Bullies and tyrannies don’t need excuses to do what they do. Appeasement through the ages has never worked. Dane-gelt never got rid of the Dane; it fed his appetite, as weakness feeds the CCP’s.
It really does make the snub of Macron so enjoyable, I always detested France since as a school boy I was taken one summer supposedly to learn their silly language !
A bit like me Mike Durrans. Why French amongst all the other European languages? It is a silly language. German is more sensible I believe.
Germany Italy or Austria over France anyday for me when I visit Europe I have no interest in America either
In the Metro I read this sentence
“A decision said to be about sending a message to Bejing and Russia about Britain’s military strength”
All I will say is what military strength? All I see or hear is the lack of it
I hope this isn’t all about paper tigers and whistling in the wind.
It appears to me our army is little more than a militia, our navy is down to the lowest number of vessels regularly in commission ever and most of them are in dock for some sort of endemic repair or servicing and as for our Air Force, all I hear is they are playing with drones.if you are at war you eventually have to occupy the territory
Please, please, please, somebody tell me different, because if we are to fulfil any aspect of any defence role, we’d better get our skates on in a major building and recruiting campaign, or even borrowing men,aircraft and vessels from the USA in the short term.
Because overall I approve this tie up, but it must have legs and be tangibly REAL and unfortunately at the moment I don’t believe it is and perhaps knowing the characters and intentions of Boris and Biden it smells a bit, to me.
Re your penultimate paragraph, Mr Turner, the website forces.net might either allay your fears – or make you feel even worse, depending on your expectations!
Maybe government doesn’t want a strong military in case they are tempted to mount a coup. That would sort BoJo out!
Bozo needs removing from office ASAP
Ah but Jack – could they turn the tide? I mean according to the A.G.W. protagonists London is due to be flooded!
Sorry, couldn’t resist a silly question.
My heart sunk when you mentioned that name…….Tom Tugendhat, who supposedly represents the constituency where I live. I say supposedly because he is or was a staunch ‘Remainer’ who represents a ‘Leave’ constituency. If only he spent as much time sorting out problems in his own constituency as he does on European issues, then things might be a whole lot different. The most pressing issue here at the moment is the constant interruption in the collection of recycled and green waste, which in the case of the latter hasn’t been collected for two months, and a service which we are paying for. He did answer my email when I complained to him, saying he was dismayed at the level of service of the council contractor, but since then nothing has happened. And there was me and many other residents of our area thinking that the ‘green’ issue was at the top of the governments agenda. Just another failure in a long line of many failures that can be placed at the feet of this useless not very conservative Conservative government.
Sounds like you need some drastic action Colin, in your Constituency. The stupid E.U. recycling policies are a pain in the wotsit altogether.
Food waste is not only a magnet to rat infestation it also attracts house flies. That’s been a problem to me during the Summer, even though here collections have continued fortnightly throughout the Covid Scamdemic.
Your situation really makes the point that Constituency residents/voters should be able to sack an incompetent M.P.
Pauline……..I have nothing against recycling, in fact I support it. It is morally wrong to put all our waste into the ground, glass, metals and paper included, and everything at one time quite wrongly went into landfill. However if a government forms a policy like this which in fact makes sense, then it might be a good idea to actually stick to it, and stop talking up it up whilst not complying with their own directives And as for forcing us to pay an extra fee on top of council tax to dispose of garden waste is just absolute con, and the fee of course will go up year on year just like council tax does. I assume that the local authorities make a handsome profit out of this exercise and sell the waste to composting firms who produce compost to sell in garden centres etc. If this blasted government was serious about reducing plastic pollution in the enviroment it would legislate against it and eradicate plastic packaging altogether, but I feel that there are some politicians who have a financial interest in plastics and packaging, so it will be a long drawn out process. The resulting plastic will eventually find itself into the food chain if it hasn’t already done so, and we will be unknowingly eating and drinking the stuff storing up all manner of serious illnesses in the future. I am a volunteer National Trust Ranger and do litter picking twice a week in the countryside and there are massive amounts of plastic waste being dumped on a daily basis. It breaks my heart to see it, it really does….. As for MP’s like Tugendhat, there’s no hope. We have tried to turf him out under UKIP and more latterly The Brexit Party, to no avail.
Yes well Colin the recycling laws came from the E.U. so there is no chance whatever of them being enacted sensibly or honestly is there.
Especially in view of our own home grown corrupt bureaucracies.