Transatlantic relations after Afghanistan and AUKUS by Ian Bond
America’s relations with its European allies have survived worse crises than the row over whose submarines Australia will buy, or even the Afghanistan debacle. The US should not be complacent, however. Joe Biden was supposed to be the answer to Europe’s prayers. After four years of punishment beatings from Donald Trump, Europeans enthusiastically greeted a new, Atlanticist president. One of his first appointments was Secretary of State Tony Blinken, French educated and French speaking; another, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, had been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, a lot. Before Biden’s first European tour, in June, the CER warned Europe’s leaders not to get carried away. Even in the best of times, there is often friction in transatlantic relations. By September Biden faced several significant crises in relations with his allies. The first relates to Afghanistan. Trump, not Biden, negotiated the deal with the Taliban to withdraw all US forces from the country; but Biden also wanted the troops home. There was little consultation with allies over the process. Even as it became clear that Afghan forces and the government in Kabul were unravelling, Biden refused to consider requests from EU leaders and British prime minister Boris Johnson to delay the final withdrawal of US troops. Though the US and its allies ultimately evacuated more than 100,000 Afghans and others from
Kabul, the chaos at the airport, with desperate Afghans falling from departing aircraft, will long be remembered. Europeans were frustrated by their inability to keep evacuating people without US help once Biden had decided to end the airport operation. The second crisis stems from the Australia/ UK/US (AUKUS) defence deal announced on September 15th by Biden, Johnson and the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison. As part of the new arrangement, Australia will acquire nuclear-powered submarines from the US and/ or the UK, having cancelled a €56 billion contract signed in 2016 to buy diesel-electric submarines from France. France was predictably furious, and recalled its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington – though the latter has now returned. France has 1.6 million citizens in its territories in the Indo-Pacific region, and a significant military presence there to defend them. France was the first European country to adopt an Indo-Pacific strategy, and has spent several years cultivating defence and security partnerships in the region, including with Australia and the US. Though most EU member-states did their best to keep out of the row, the EU institutions stood by France: Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, told CNN’s Christiane