FCAS fighter jet<\/a>, are bogged down. New defense exports, including military aviation components, are expected to be folded into the refreshed defense pact on Thursday.<\/p>\nAnd last month’s NATO commitment to invest up to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product in defense, a move both to appease Trump and strengthen Europe’s independence, means financial windfalls for European companies, even if finding the cash may not be so easy in Paris and London.<\/p>\n
Challenges await<\/p>\n
While working <\/strong>more closely with the French marks a return to old habits, convincing London to invest in its relationship with Paris at the expense of Washington is an enormous ask considering just how deep Anglo-American ties run.<\/p>\nAnd points of tension remain between the British and French that can’t be papered over by Macron and Starmer’s close relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The French may be enjoying a bit of Schadenfreude over the difficulties facing AUKUS at the moment, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[186,1306,802,14787,2437,6215,473,32,2595,34,2000,299,1214,36,98280,1824,2817,807,2597,98281,2598,809,8041,2343,8720,332,811,413,42660,657,15,49,333,771,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-255751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-aviation","10":"tag-brexit","11":"tag-cold-war","12":"tag-companies","13":"tag-cooperation","14":"tag-defense","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-drones","17":"tag-emmanuel-macron","18":"tag-eu","19":"tag-europe","20":"tag-exports","21":"tag-france","22":"tag-francois-heisbourg","23":"tag-germany","24":"tag-intelligence","25":"tag-keir-starmer","26":"tag-military","27":"tag-military-aviation","28":"tag-missiles","29":"tag-negotiations","30":"tag-nuclear-weapons","31":"tag-research","32":"tag-resilience","33":"tag-russia","34":"tag-security","35":"tag-space","36":"tag-submarines","37":"tag-ukraine","38":"tag-united-kingdom","39":"tag-united-states","40":"tag-vladimir-putin","41":"tag-war","42":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/13182905-1024x683.jpg\")
U.S. President Donald Trump’s isolationist bent and his erratic view of the alliance has forced the British to consider the possibility that Washington may not be there through thick and thin. | Pool Photo by Will Oliver via EPA<\/p>\n