Britain and France are preparing for a formal announcement Tuesday of the most far reaching defense alliance in the two nations’ long history. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will sign the declarations in London.
Chief among the declarations that will be signed are the long reported plan to share aircraft carriers as a way to reduce military costs. The deals will also include sharing costs on cyber warfare and research on weapons of mass destruction.
The driving force behind the deal is, as with most major military moves in recent months, cost concerns. Both Britain and France are strugglng with budget crises and, with the two largest military budgets in the European Union they are both looking to cut expenses wherever possible.
And while the deals will likely be successful in reducing costs in the near term, the pact may in the long term curb the nations’ abilities to cut programs that are now “shared.” In particular, a pledge to “share” costs on nuclear weapon development may make it considerably more difficult for Britain to finally abandon its nuclear arsenal.
What makes the writer imagine the British elites want to abandon their nukes?
So the UK will have both an Anglo-French nuclear program and a parallel Anglo-American nuclear program?
They are going to share aircraft carriers but the UK is going to buy F-35 instead of the French Rafale?
This is like one of those love triangle romantic comedies. It is clear it can't work, but just who is the odd man out?
Nobody is the odd man out. While the neocon Sarkozy regime still has power, it will do whatever he neocon international wants him to. This is a knee-jerk move hatched in Washington, paranoid over even most modest German assertiveness in EU and NATO. Along with the "loss" of Turkey, paranoids view everything that does not work according to their script as an utter danger. Sarkozy, the most eager of any recent European leaders — after Blair — is more then happy to feed the delusion for his agrandizement. It is too bad for them, as Germany is actually acting responsibly in EU affairs, paying more then its share for the sustinance of eurozone, and has an exemplary growing economy. This "military alliance" is then an "alliance' inside the NATO alliance? How cute.
The British nuclear bomb program began during WWII and was originally meant to nuke Germany if necessary. After all, the Soviets were allies at the time. The French program began after that war and had a triple purpose namely to deter the Germans, to protect the French colonies, and to deter the Soviets because president De Gaulle did not trust us to do that for France. Today the possession of nuclear bombs by these nations is ludicrous if not outright immoral but when has morality ever played a role in military matters?
Does that mean England's jolly jack tars will be hot racking with les pom-poms on the French carriers and vice versa? Wot about the language barrier? Inkez dinkez parlez voo is a lousy way to 'Peut on dire Faire le toush-down sur the plafond du port-avions'?
The language of love, like a good Bordeau, is lost on the common Englishman.
PS The French carrier told-off to protect Great Britain 'broke down' yestersday.
Not about money…but part of the 100+ year plan to MERGE Europe….into one nation state.
France and UK are now mere "states"….no longer independent nations…
First the UN trojan horse..now the EU…..merging into political regions…erasing hundreds of years of culture and identity.
Money is the oil…but power…GLOBAL power is the goal
Socialists like Monnet and the Bilderberg Group pushed gradual merging…on divergent fronts..with the goal of 1 Europe the guiding light and PURPOSE.
This is just another mile marker on the nearly completed goal….
An autacratik socialist monstrocity…with nuclear weapons…and lots of US gold reserves..
Great
Maybe Germany and Italy can do the same.