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France and the United Kingdom looking for joint cooperation

(Brussels 2) The visit of the British Minister of Defense may have left the impression that the United Kingdom had a particular attraction for France. It is partly true. But not totally. Paris is only one stage in the tour that Liam Fox is currently making in several European countries: Berlin on June 28, Rome on July 21, and of course the United States and Canada. At each European stage, Liam Fox made a point of addressing two or three topics of discussion: Afghanistan, NATO and defense investments.

With regard to Afghanistan, the British objective is to test with the allies the relevance of their commitment to NATO's ISAF operation, or even their possible reinforcement to allow the British to disengage (example with Italy) or to suppress caveats (example with Germany). In any case, Liam Fox insisted on the need to strengthen and accelerate the training of the Afghan army and security. As Liam Fox himself explains: "The development of the Afghan National Security Forces is fundamental to prepare for the transition in Afghanistan, leading to an eventual withdrawal of ISAF forces“. NATO partners are indeed putting the finishing touches to a plan allowing the start of the withdrawal phase.

In terms of cooperation, there was a lot of talk about investment and trade relations with Italy, which is a traditional client of Great Britain in terms of defense equipment. It is in this context that the various cooperation projects envisaged with France come into play. If Liam Fox ruled out the UK and France sharing aircraft carriers (1), but we "could share other resources, including A400M aircraft" he specified (2). Among the possible areas of cooperation: " tankers, maintenance in operational condition of the A400M and naval resources, we can move towards more pooling » as stated by Hervé Morin, the French Minister of Defence.

But all this still remains hypothetical and depends on the extent of the strategic review underway across the Channel (SDSR or Strategic Defense and Security Review) which should be carried out by the end of September. A drastic revision which could lead to the abandonment of certain programs or certain orders, the extension of certain equipment and the reduction of certain staff (3).

The ministers have agreed to meet again in mid-October anyway (this may be Hervé Morin's last act in government, unless Sarkozy decides to speed up the tempo of the reshuffle). In the meantime, a joint group has set to work to identify everything that could be done. "All avenues are explored" is estimated in the entourage of Hervé Morin. This could go from the opening of the hunting school (already common with the Belgians and the Luxembourgers, the Spaniards are interested) to more industrial projects, such as drones (the French have started cooperation with the Israelis and Americans), through naval cooperation and air maintenance (especially tanker planes or the A400M).

(1) Every word is important and the original is better than a translation. Here is what Liam Fox said: "In terms of actually being able to share an aircraft carrier, I would have thought that that was totally unrealistic."
(2) The easiest and most flexible method of effecting this division would be, in my (humble) opinion, for the United Kingdom to join theEATC. But strangely, this option is not mentioned in London.
(3) Read also: The British army is preparing for a serious beating … budget

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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