Originally Posted by
Grumpy retiree
France is pissed off because their long term positioning in the Pacific has been thwarted.
The thing that I don't get is how a commercial contract cancellation impacts upon Frances ability & desire to be a part of protecting their Pacific 'assets'. Are they withdrawing from the Pacific now? It's almost like they've cried so much to the EU that they can't back down anymore.
Was being part of a coalition standing up to China conditional on this deal? Does that make them Mercenaries? Obvious answers to both of those but, whilst we know Oz is not a big player in Military expenditure (big for us though), does the EU seriously want to undermine the fact that a lot of our kit is from Europe already?