Chapter 1130 European Rapid Reaction Force

Europe.

Europe, which has lost Africa and suffered setbacks in European integration, is facing the United States' division of Europe. In addition, the current sharp rise in international energy has weakened Europe's overall economic development.

But Europe is not willing to choose to lie flat, especially France and Germany, who are ambitious to revitalize Europe and make Europe the most important pole in the world.

This time, France and Germany joined forces to strongly oppose the United States' launching of the Iraq War, and even did not hesitate to tear their faces with the United States for this.

The United States' retaliation was also extremely fierce, labeling Europe as old Europe and new Europe, and then labeling old Europe as pro-American and anti-American, and using the media to criticize the anti-American old Europe.

Not only that, the Americans also wielded the sanctions stick to sanction anti-American European companies such as automobiles and Airbus, intending to hit the economies of France, Germany and other countries, and supporting pro-American parties in France, Germany and other countries.

What's more ferocious is that under the instigation of the Americans, Britain is making a fuss about Brexit and wants to hold a Brexit referendum.

This made the Franco-German alliance very angry, and they cursed Britain as a troublemaker in Europe.

However, the Americans' means made the Franco-German alliance choose to get closer to Russia. After all, Russia can provide them with relatively cheap energy, steel, wood, etc., and Russia also intends to strengthen its ties with France and Germany and integrate into Europe.

Although Russia has a vast territory and spans Asian and European countries, Russia has never considered itself an Eastern country, but has always considered itself a European country.

The power demonstrated by the laser weapons this time made Europe feel imminent, because this technological progress also put pressure on Europe.

Europe must have its own army! The EU must be the EU of Europe!

Europe always has its own pride, and France and Germany are not willing to give up their pride and completely surrender to the United States.

In order to oppose Turkey's proposal for NATO to launch collective defense, France even did not hesitate to suspend its return to NATO.

Although France withdrew from NATO that year, in 1992 when Strong was in power, French officers re-participated in the work of the NATO Military Commission within the framework of the Bosnia Operation. At the same time, France sent troops to intervene in the Bosnia-Herzegovina issue and began to move closer to NATO. In 1994, France formally attended the NATO Spring Meeting of Defense Ministers held in Brussels, taking a practical step on the road to returning to NATO. In 1996, France returned to the NATO Military Committee. In 1999, France participated in NATO's air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and then participated in NATO's military operations in Kosovo.

It can be said that France has almost returned to NATO, but France and the United States are still playing a game. France wants to occupy an important position in NATO's military command structure, but the United States is not very willing.

In fact, the European Union began to discuss the establishment of its own armed forces as early as 1999, called the Rapid Reaction Force. If it is indeed formed, it will be more than 60,000 people, with the United Kingdom and France as the main members, and other EU member states as the auxiliary. It can be dispatched to perform quasi-war missions within six weeks.

According to the concept, the mission of this rapid reaction force is to intervene in unfavorable situations, humanitarian rescue and assistance, peacekeeping missions, conflict prevention and mediation.

In November 2000, the foreign ministers and defense ministers of EU countries decided in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, to create a European rapid reaction force in 2003.

This rapid reaction force consists of 100,000 people, including 60 battalions of ground forces, 400 combat aircraft (75 of which are from France, 72 from the United Kingdom, and 80 from Germany), 161 transport aircraft, 29 aerial refueling aircraft and more than 100 ships (including the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle).

Its combat capability should be able to meet the needs of deploying about 60,000 troops to a conflict area 4,000 kilometers away within 60 days, and ensure the corresponding rotation to maintain effective intervention for one year.

These troops and equipment are not permanently assigned to the command of the rapid reaction force, but are drawn from the armed forces of EU member states according to the situation they face. The European rapid reaction force will also set up a special permanent command organization consisting of hundreds of people, that is, a veritable international combat staff, to ensure the formulation and command of the rapid reaction force's combat operations.

In the conception, this European rapid reaction force has the characteristics of coordination and efficient action, as well as three advantages.

First, it can make EU member states feel that they belong to the European common security and defense system, and must give priority to achieving comprehensive rapprochement among countries within Europe and seeking consistency in action.

Second, the establishment of the European Rapid Reaction Force enables EU member states to be more coordinated in the selection and procurement of weapons and equipment, thereby providing a "unified" market for the European defense industry, which will provide Europe with a very important bargaining chip in military cooperation negotiations with the United States.

Third, the establishment of the European Rapid Reaction Force has at least symbolically taken an important step towards the establishment of an independent European defense system. This step, together with the recently completed integration of the European defense industry, once again reflects that the process of the European defense system formed after the end of the Cold War is accelerating.

However, because the Americans did not want to see the establishment of the European Rapid Reaction Force and interfered in it, coupled with the terrorist disaster that the United States encountered on September 11, 2001, the world shifted from facing mainly traditional threats to facing non-traditional threats, and the Americans launched the war in Afghanistan, so this European Rapid Reaction Force has not been established for a long time.

Now, with the establishment of the Franco-German alliance, the old European countries, mainly the Franco-German alliance, have fallen out with the Americans, and facing the rapid development of world science and technology, France and Germany are determined to promote the establishment of a European rapid reaction force.

And Germany will no longer allow American troops to be stationed this year.

And the Franco-German alliance is getting closer to Russia, and then the two sides will further communicate in politics, culture, science and technology, culture, and military.

Of course, the Franco-German alliance also wants to promote cooperation between Europe and China, so that the Americans will be too busy to concentrate their forces in Europe.

Now France and Germany are not having a good time. After France and Germany broke up with the United States and withdrew the French and German troops from the battlefield in Afghanistan, even the materials, weapons and ammunition were not withdrawn, so that these materials, weapons and ammunition fell into the hands of the guerrillas, which made the Americans hate them. They hit France and Germany hard, including economic suppression, political attacks, and public opinion attacks on the two countries.

Even the US military stationed in Germany has been making trouble more frequently recently, which has made the Germans very dissatisfied with this, and the voices of expelling US troops in Germany are getting louder and louder.

Germany also knows that as long as the United States has troops stationed in Germany, many things will be beyond its control.

The interests of both sides are quite different.

On the contrary, France and Germany have a lot of room for cooperation. France pays more attention to political interests and wants to become the leader of the European Union, while Germany pays more attention to economic interests and wants to become the leader of the European Union in terms of economy.

If both sides take a step back, the room for cooperation will become very large. (End of this chapter)