Could Donald Trump really annex Greenland or take control of the Panama Canal by force? The statements of the president-elect of the United States are creating a kind of unrest, even before his official inauguration on January 20.
For Paris, these messages are not very credible, as explained by the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, in an interview with JDD, this Sunday, January 12.
“The American president has accustomed us to these types of statements, but this does not systematically translate into actions,” says the minister. As an example, he gives the promises of “making Mexico pay for the wall between both countries”, without this idea ever coming to fruition.
The Government member also cites “the questioning of the Iranian nuclear agreement” and “the nuclear issue with North Korea”, files already opened during the first Trump administration. Without much progress.
“We must keep a cool head and analyze Donald Trump’s presidential rhetoric with appropriate distance. Therefore, we will have to be more interested in decisions than in statements,” says Balard’s tenant.
The Quai d’Orsay laments the “return of the law of the strongest”
Sébastien Lecornu thus places himself in the same line as his counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who also does not believe the recent and much-discussed revelations of the billionaire.
“Do I think the United States will invade Greenland? The answer is no. Have we entered an era in which the law of the strongest returns? The answer is yes,” replied Jean on January 8 -Noël Barrot in France inter.
The truth is that, for Sébastien Lecornu, this type of statement has yet to lead France and Europe to question their positions. “(These statements) have the merit of forcing Europeans to question our rearmament and our place within the alliances,” he believes.
At a strategic level, however, he assures that Paris “has an advantage” in its relations with Washington, since Emmanuel Macron “has already worked with Donald Trump in the past.”
Source: BFM TV
