2023-06-18 16:30:05
Eight months following its launch, the European anti-missile shield project is still arousing strong tensions on the continent, in particular between Paris and Berlin. A vast conference on the air defense of Europe organized Monday, June 19 by France, at Le Bourget (Seine-Saint-Denis) on the sidelines of the International Aeronautics and Space Show, must once once more be the opportunity to raise the subject. But nothing indicates that it will make it possible to iron out the dispute, Boris Pistorius, the German Minister of Defence, having already made it known that he would not be present.
While the war in Ukraine highlighted the vulnerability of the countries on the eastern flank of Europe in the face of a possible spillover of the conflict, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took the initiative to propose, in October, within the framework of the NATO, a project of
“sky shield” (Euro Sky Shield Initiative, ESSI). The principle: to achieve economies of scale by jointly purchasing existing ground-to-air defense systems in order to quickly have a complete bubble of protection, in particular anti-missile.
To move quickly, Berlin offered to acquire a German system for the short range (the Iris-T), an American system for the medium range (the Patriot PAC-3, which already represents the bulk of the systems deployed in Europe), and an Israeli system for the missiles of long range (the Arrow 3). The project now brings together 17 European countries, including the United Kingdom, the Baltic states and most of the states of central Europe, with the notable exception of Poland.
Multiple divergences
Officially, the Germans do not close the door to the integration of a French system into the future device. “It is always possible to join the project, but you have to act quickly”, explains a German source, regarding the Mamba, a system developed by France with Italy and centered on medium-range defense. In Paris, on the other hand, we now seem closed to any rallying and rather decided to lead a counter-offensive, in particular through the organization of the Bourget conference, in the presence of regarding twenty countries, which must be closed, Monday evening, with a speech by Emmanuel Macron at the Hôtel National des Invalides. “The Germans have proposed an industrial agreement, we are proposing a strategic initiative: to have the ability to make a European defense, sovereign, with European equipment”says a French diplomatic source.
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