France – amour propre seriously dented

The howls of gallic outrage from Emmanuel Macron over the political humiliation of being excluded from the Aukusa pact with the knock-on economic damage of a cancelled multi-billion submarine contract, are causing wry amusement elsewhere. There was already disquiet in Washington about EU investment agreements with China and the gas pipeline deal with Russia; and there has been continuing resentment about lack of EU financial commitment to NATO. So there’s more than a smidgeon of hypocrisy