France withdraws from Operation Sea Guardian. The anger against Ankara is not over

(B2) The French Minister for the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, drove the point home to MEPs on Thursday (July 2). Turkey is no longer quite a reliable Ally. And France is very, very angry

Most of the talk was dedicated to European defense (read: Florence Parly's plea for a Europe of defense). But inevitably the subject of relations with Turkey returned to the front of the table, in particular on the Franco-Turkish incident in the Mediterranean (read: The Cirkin was not at its first attempt. A French ship illuminated by radar). A remark all the more interesting since, the day before, the Turkish ambassador in France had given another version of this incident (read: Naval incident between France and Turkey. The Turkish ambassador in Paris explains. We were provoked).

An aggressive and unworthy act

The illumination of the frigate Courbet by the Turks by means of a driving radar is a " aggressive act unworthy of a NATO ally ". Turkey's behavior is very worrying repeated the French Minister of the Armed Forces, before driving the point home. " We are supposed to be an Alliance. An ally who willfully violates the rules the Alliance is supposed to uphold and attempts to threaten those who interrogate them is not acceptable. »

Four proposals

« So that this type of incident does not happen again. Paris asks four things of its Allies:

1. a solemn reaffirmation of respect for the embargo;
2. a categorical rejection of Turkey's use of NATO callsigns to conduct its trafficking;
3. better cooperation between EU and NATO;
4. deconfliction mechanisms.

Withdrawal of Sea Guardian

Pending progress on these subjects, France has decided to withdraw French resources from the NATO operation in the Mediterranean, Sea Guardian. " This, until further notice “, confirmed Florence Parly. A rather unusual gesture, especially since it is accompanied by some publicity.

Comment: a rare gesture, a very political element

Decisions to withdraw from operations have already taken place in the past. But usually, they are done rather discreetly, within force generation conferences, either for a disagreement on the substance (the objective of the operation), or on a question of budget or means (a country preferring missions/operations, international or national), or an internal problem.

A non-trivial way of doing things

Such a public and dramatic withdrawal clearly questioning the behavior of another NATO member is rare. A point confirmed to me by a diplomat with a good knowledge of the Alliance's seraglio. Let's be clear: in purely operational terms, this decision has a fairly limited scope. The operation Sea Guardian indeed operates intermittently depending on the availability of the nations. A State can thus put a ship or withdraw it according to its good will, without real notice. It is more the political act that should be analyzed here than the operational act.

Where and how will this escalation end

It is a further gradation in the French will to leave nothing more to the Turks, nor to NATO. The question now is where and how will this escalation stop. In any case, needless to say that on the Alliance side, we are very " bothered by the Franco-Turkish question, which comes on top of a slow disinterest in Europe on the American side. Suffice to say that the tree is shaken!

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde, with Aurélie Pugnet at the European Parliament)