French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the United States over the weekend for "making choices for the sake of attractiveness" based on "a double standard".
Speaking at a news conference following the European Union Summit in Brussels on Friday, the French leader, called into question the US' sincerity in its trade relations with Europe, pointing to it selling natural gas to Europe at record high prices while enjoying lower energy prices domestically, and providing state aid of up to 80 percent in some sectors "while it's banned here".
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has plunged Europe into an unprecedented energy crisis as most European countries depended on Russian natural gas supplies for their energy needs. To compensate for the sanction-induced halting of Russian natural gas shipments, France has turned to the US for liquefied natural gas. US natural gas exports to France reportedly increased 421 percent during the first eight months of 2022 — but the value of that LNG increased by 1,094 percent in August alone due to the higher prices of LNG.
Macron had earlier described the "real super profits" the US and Norway have made in their LNG exports to European countries as unearned income from a geopolitical-war. "That's not the true meaning of friendship," he added.
The French leader was fully justified to give vent to his dissatisfaction with the way his country is being treated by the US, which calls itself a close partner. Friendly state-to-state relations can be sustained only when based on equality and mutual benefits. Yet Washington is trying to maximize its own interest at the expense of those of others.
It is not the first time the US has abused the trust of its ally in pursuit of maximum benefits for itself. A little over a year ago, the bilateral relationship between France and the US suffered a major blow when Australia scrapped a mega deal to buy French submarines in favor of nuclear-powered submarine technology from the US. The US-led act of betrayal angered France so much that it recalled its ambassador to Washington, calling it a "stab in the back".
Given this, it is unfathomable why so many European countries have conceded their foreign policy independence and become "yes-men" of the US directives, especially when it comes to their handling of relations with China. For example, due to US coercion and persuasion, many European countries have excluded Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from their 5G infrastructure construction, which causes huge losses for them and the Chinese company.
And in their more than three hours of talks in Brussels, the 27 leaders of the world's biggest trading bloc reportedly discussed ways to reduce "their dependence" on China for tech equipment and raw minerals, a concern that has been festered by Washington's tender attention to the bloc's needs.
For European countries to avoid repeatedly falling victim to the US' profiteering unilateralism, they must bear in mind what's best for their own interests and stop blindly toeing Washington's line.