Brussels. September 20. INTERFAX-The EU, against the background of the situation with the refusal of Australia from the contract with France for the creation of submarines, needs to make more efforts to strengthen its own defense potential, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, told reporters at the UN on Monday.
"This is not directed against our allies, but if we are stronger and more persistent, it means that our alliances (with other countries) will also be stronger," Western media quoted him as saying.
At the same time, he said that in the situation with the termination of the agreement by Australia with France, the United States demonstrated a lack of reliability in relation to its European allies.
"The basic principles for the allies are transparency and trust, they go together. And what do we see? We see a clear lack of transparency and trustworthiness, " Michel said.
He also said that the EU needs to better understand exactly what intentions were behind the decision to cancel the contract with France.
Michel added that under the former US President Donald Trump, the situation was at least clearer: according to the head of the European Council, Trump did not hide that the EU was not a "useful partner, a useful ally"for the US.
In turn, Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes, who also arrived at the UN, said that the situation around the cancellation of the contract was "a lightning strike, first of all, for France, but also for Europe and for the whole world - at the geostrategic level." According to her, now Europe needs to demonstrate a more significant presence on the world stage.
Last week, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Ministers Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the creation of a new trilateral security partnership - AUKUS. The first major initiative of AUKUS will be the construction of a nuclear submarine fleet for Australia. This provides for the refusal of Canberra from the contract for the construction of submarines with the French company Naval Group for $90 billion.
At the same time, as reported, French President Emmanuel Macron was not informed about the preparation of the partnership agreement, its details were agreed by the three parties at the June summit of the "big seven" in Cornwall in the south of England from June 11 to 13. In the British government, the documents relating to the transaction were marked "top secret", their discussions took place in specially protected rooms.