Who would have thought it in 2016? Brexit in our opinion has been the most effective act of economic and political self harm in a very long time indeed. Yet France, who only three years ago our then prime minister, Liz Truss, notably couldn’t decide whether or not President Macron was friend or foe, is moving towards the creation of a Pan European nuclear umbrella with the UK.
France has an entirely independent nuclear deterrent. It has been said for a long time that the UK’s nuclear deterrent had “sovereign independence” – and yet there was always some element of operational uncertainty as to whether or not this directly equated into strategic and political independence – due to the co-sharing of the missiles carrying UK warheads, with the US. France didn’t suffer from this potential tactical sleight of hand… And today, Thursday the 10th of July, marks a profound day for UK / French cooperation.
President Putin in his historical revisionism, has entirely created his own worst outcome, one that he professed to fear most: the Eastern nuclear expansion of NATO. For some this is not a closed book, as they argue the accession of new members from within the remit of the former Soviet Union, into NATO, created this conflict. Yet what Putin has managed, due to the near 20-year hesitancy, on the part of the US, as they seek to exit themselves from role of world policeman – Putin has created the perfect conditions for President Trump to put Europe on notice, that it needs to sort out its own backyard. Today, the UK and France placed Putin on notice, that he will soon face a higher and better guarded fence, on which there are mounted surveillance towers. And those towers contain nuclear warheads. Catastrophic historical blunder by Putin. Rather than exercise dominance over a benign region, he has single-handedly caused the massive re-arming and extension into the operational nuclear realm, of his near neighbours. Way to go Vladimir!
At the outset of the Russia Ukraine conflict, Putin, as we have written before, had a very clear and implicit element of nuclear intimidation behind his every action. Including his earlier deliberations on whether or not he would actually utilise this capacity in Ukraine itself. Our position clearly stated at the time, was that Europe should militarily coalesce, acting collectively to call President Putin out on this nuclear hostility. Today’s UK/French statement of intent on nuclear collaboration, will reach straight into the heart of where Putin goes from here…and has almost certainly made the world a safer place…
#nuclearcapability #nuclear #rapprochement #nato
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