The conflict between France and the United States, which turned into a loud diplomatic scandal, is explained by a change in Washington's foreign policy priorities.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this as stated by Sergei Utkin, head of the strategic assessment group at IMEMO RAS.
“After the change of US administration, the European Union hoped to find a predictable, reliable partner in Joe Biden. Even then, European analysts warned against excessive enthusiasm, predicting that the United States would continue to be guided by its own interests, without looking too much at its allies. However, the euphoria over Trump's departure initially muted the voices of skeptics. Joe Biden really seemed to Europe more comfortable and open to dialogue on many topics,” the expert told Kommersant.
According to him, contradictions between Western allies and unilateral decisions by Washington should be viewed through the prism of the US-China confrontation and the shift in the focus of world politics as a whole to the Indo-Pacific region.
“Newly set priorities require a reconfiguration of allied and partnership relations, which does not take place without incidents. The ambitions of the leading EU countries to play a significant role in the Asia-Pacific situation do not find understanding in Washington. At the same time, the United States is well aware that Europe is not able to choose between the United States and China,” Utkin added.
However, he believes that things will not come to a serious crisis in relations between the Western allies.
“In the context of intensifying global confrontation, thousands of transatlantic threads in economics and politics, and even the basic civilizational community, are only becoming more important. Unilateral actions do not create a real risk of a rupture between the United States and Europe, since the latter is completely unprepared for such a scenario in the foreseeable future,” the political scientist concluded.
He believes that France and the whole of Europe will eventually have to “moderate their ambitions and integrate into the new reality.