Germany has declined to support France in its ongoing diplomatic debate with the US, UK, and Australia. A multi-billion-dollar submarine deal between Austrialia and France was scrapped in favour of a deal with Washington and London. Germany has instead opted for a more conciliatory approach, Euractiv.com reports.
France’s harsh reaction is “understandable”, foreign policy speaker MP Nils Schmid (SPD) told EURACTIV. He stressed that “we don’t have any interest in a further escalation and want to continue the close collaboration with the USA and Australia.”
CDU’s foreign policy spokesperson, Jürgen Hardt told Euractiv, “free trade is especially essential between partners like the USA and the EU, who share the same values, to tackle the challenges the West is currently facing.” Hardt also stressed that it is now essential that the crisis between France and the USA is resolved as soon as possible. “As a reliable partner of both countries, Germany should act as a mediator between the two,” Hardt added.
On the other hand, France is backed by the European Commission. “One of our member states has been treated in a way that is not acceptable, so we need to know what happened and why,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
