{"id":2559,"date":"2018-10-30T00:59:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T00:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2018-10-30T00:59:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T00:59:30","slug":"belgiums-purchase-of-us-made-f35-jets-against-european-interests-macron-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/2018\/10\/30\/belgiums-purchase-of-us-made-f35-jets-against-european-interests-macron-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium’s purchase of US-made F35 jets ‘against European interests’, Macron says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Belgian government announced Thursday that it would replace a fleet of ageing F-16 jets with the F-35 made by Lockheed Martin, rejecting rival offers to buy Eurofighter Typhoons or Rafales from the French group Dassault.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“The decision was linked to a Belgian procedure and the country’s political constraints, but strategically it goes against European interests,”\u00a0Macron<\/a>\u00a0told journalists during a visit to Bratislava.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Europe<\/a>\u00a0won’t be strong unless it is truly sovereign and knows how to protect itself,” he said, citing a need to develop “a genuine European defence capacity”.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“I will do everything possible to promote European offers in future contracts,” Macron added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Critics said the choice of Lockheed would leave\u00a0Belgium<\/a>\u00a0dependent on maintenance and operational systems firmly in US control, while also assailing a blow to Europe’s efforts to unify its defence capacities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Belgium justified the decision by saying the F-35s offered better value for money while best allowing it to meet its NATO commitments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Charles Michel said his country would be purchasing equipment from both US and European suppliers as it bolstered defence spending.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday, the French defence ministry announced that Belgium had confirmed an order for 442 Griffon and Jaguar armoured vehicles for around 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion).<\/span><\/p>\n

The deal had been expected, but the announcement appeared timed to allay tensions between the two\u00a0NATO<\/a>\u00a0allies.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Lost opportunity’<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year the\u00a0European Union<\/a>\u00a0launched its “permanent structured cooperation on defence”, or PESCO, aimed at unifying defence strategies across the bloc and rationalising a fragmented approach to buying and developing military equipment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The EU itself is planning to vastly expand its defence budget starting in 2021, allocating some 13 billion euros over seven years to research and develop new equipment — up from less than 600 million euros in the current budget.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most countries see no problem allowing non-EU firms to compete for contracts under the PESCO cooperation, but France is leading a handful which want to restrict their participation.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Washington has warned that excluding US companies could undermine NATO at a time when tensions are running high with Russia and new threats such as cyber attacks are emerging.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday the European aerospace consortium Airbus also said it took note of Belgium’s decision not to choose the Eurofighter Typhoon with “sincere regret”.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It is a lost opportunity to strengthen European industrial cooperation in times when the EU is called upon to increase its joint defence efforts,” the company said.<\/span><\/p>\n

It added that in buying Typhoons, Belgium could have eventually joined the French-German Future Combat Air System, aimed at developing next-generation jets to start replacing current Eurofighter and Rafale jets starting in 2035.<\/span><\/p>\n

Airbus is one of the partners in the Eurofighter consortium, which also includes companies from Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.<\/span><\/p>\n

Macron, speaking at the start of a two-day visit to Slovakia and the Czech Republic, also called on people to reject leaders who seek to “divide Europe”.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I will fight wherever they are trying to roll back justice, the ability of journalists to work freely, the role of universities, all which makes us European,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Macron is hoping to counter a surge in support for populist parties and leaders in many European countries ahead of European Parliament elections next May.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Belgian government announced Thursday that it would replace a fleet of ageing F-16 jets with the F-35 made by Lockheed Martin, rejecting rival offers to buy Eurofighter Typhoons or Rafales from the French group Dassault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2560,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions\/2560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}