From The Asia Times, December 8:
French president hits the Anglo-Saxon axis in West Asia where it hurts the most: in the UAE and Saudi Arabia
What distinguishes great powers like France is their sense of history and their profound understanding of the temporality of historical experience – or how their past, present and future are thought to be connected in their international diplomacy.
That is why the AUKUS pact among the US, the UK and Australia was a catastrophic mistake. Australia can be forgiven for being an inconsequential third-tier nation, but the US and Britain should have known that France would duly settle scores when the time came.
And it has come, in the most unexpected way, as French President Emmanuel Macron hit the Anglo-Saxon axis in West Asia where it hurts most: in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Macron wrapped up a diplomatic coup of mammoth proportions in securing a US$19 billion contract for 80 French-made Rafale fighter jets, the biggest international order ever made for the warplanes, during a visit to the UAE last Friday.
The arms deal includes 80 Rafale fighter jets and 12 military helicopters. The deal will directly support 7,000 jobs in France and guarantee the supply chain of Dassault Aviation until the end of 2031, a French official told journalists. Shares in Dassault Aviation SA, the Rafale’s maker, rose more than 9%.
Yet this is much more than a “standalone” business deal. Macron has tapped the impatience in the Emirati mind over US President Joe Biden’s hesitancy in approving an F-35 deal amid concerns about the UAE’s relationship with China, including the prevalence of Huawei 5G (fifth-generation wireless telecom) technology in the country.
The Biden administration is sitting on the UAE’s F-35 stealth fighter deal that formed something of an adjunct to the so-called Abraham Accords on the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Emirates, which gave former president Donald Trump a foreign-policy triumph in West Asia in the final days of his term in office....
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