2020 will have been marked by several crises in Europe, beyond the Covid-19 crisis, many of them being linked to the ambitions of the Turkish government in the Mediterranean basin and in the Caucasus. But where in 2019, Europe was still trying to present a united front and the ambition to move towards the creation of a Europe of Defense and European Strategic Autonomy, these crises of 2020 will have highlighted the deep differences between many European countries on this subject, and more particularly between Paris and Berlin, which have hitherto been the driving forces behind this initiative.
The follow-up to the NATO summit in London
The start of the year was already particularly difficult for Europeans, following the serious tensions between France, the United States and the rest of the Europeans, over the Turkish case. The French President indeed drew the wrath of many European chancelleries, but also of Washington, when he said about Turkey that NATO was brain dead on the sidelines of the NATO London summit in December 2019. France was in the front line against Ankara, whether in Syria alongside the Kurds, or in the eastern Mediterranean alongside Nicosia. But Europeans hardly shared the observation of the French president, marking a first major break in the unity of the European front in Defense.
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