On December 14, local time, Reuters reported that a UAE government official said that the country had suspended negotiations to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the United States, and the specific reasons for which the UAE had not yet been disclosed. As soon as this news was disclosed, it immediately caused a lot of speculation in the media of various countries.
Some time ago, the United States demanded that the UAE terminate cooperation between China and Arab States on the pretext that the Khalifa port renovated by the Chinese side for the UAE may become an "overseas military base of the People's Liberation Army", otherwise it will refuse to sell the UAE F-35 fighter jets. CNN believes that the UAE's refusal to buy F-35 fighter jets is likely due to the UAE's dissatisfaction with the UNITED States' restrictions on Sino-Arab cooperation.
We know that for a long time, China has been adhering to the principle of mutual benefit and win-win results, and has cooperated with many Middle Eastern countries, such as China's Huawei company, which has actively helped the UAE build 5G communication equipment, which will naturally trigger the envy of the United States. In order to prevent the UAE from continuing to cooperate with China, the United States has used the F-35 arms sales order as a threat to ask the UAE to exclude Huawei from the country's 5G suppliers. Recently, in order to prevent China from helping the UAE build the Port of Khalifa, the United States threatened the United Arab Emirates that if it did not stop cooperating with China, the United States would tear up the F-35 arms sales order, and finally forced the United Arab Emirates to temporarily suspend the construction of Chinese companies. Based on the above realities, CNN and other media believe that the United States has repeatedly used F-35 arms sales orders as a handle to blackmail the UAE, which will naturally cause dissatisfaction in the UAE, so the UAE has now taken the initiative to stop the plan to buy F-35 fighter jets.
Of course, there is also a voice that believes that the reason why the UAE is no longer seeking the F-35 is because it was "cut off" by French arms dealers. Earlier this month, France's Dassault S.p.A. and the United Arab Emirates entered into an arms sales order worth a total of $18 billion, including eighty of the latest versions of the Rafale fighter jets, compared with the previous arms sales order between the UAE and the United States for the purchase of fifty F-35 fighter jets, according to Defense News. Therefore, some media people believe that France has insight into the UAE's dissatisfaction with the attitude of the United States, so it found an opportunity to sell its own fighters to the UAE, and finally succeeded. What's more, not long ago, the United States also co-opted Britain and Australia to tear up the submarine order worth more than 60 billion US dollars that France and Australia had signed earlier, and intended to intercept france's huge order for the sale of frigates to Greece again! If France really "cut off" the US arms sales order this time, it can also be regarded as revenge for the United States' multiple arrows. At present, according to many media analysis, the possibility of France prying orders is very large! According to the analysis of relevant European media, not long ago, French President Macron personally went to the United Arab Emirates, and during the UAE, Macron most likely did his homework on this large order of up to 19 billion US dollars!
For this matter, Aerospace Jun believes that there are many reasons why the order for the United States to sell the F-35 to the United Arab Emirates has failed.
From a practical point of view, the UAE's demand for the F-35 fighter jet is actually not as urgent as imagined. For a long time, the UAE has maintained good relations with neighboring countries, and there is little pressure on national defense. At present, the biggest imaginary enemy of the UAE - Iran, the main fighter of its air force is only some F-14A fighters and some MiG-29 fighters that are about to come to an end of their mechanical life and are difficult to properly maintain. For the UAE, the performance of the high-end F-35 fighter jet is significantly excessive, and France's latest Rafale fighter is enough to protect the UAE's airspace. Not to mention that iran has recently taken the initiative to extend an olive branch to the UAE and actively seek to ease with the UAE, which has further improved the security situation in the UAE. As a result, the UAE does not necessarily need a fifth-generation fighter jet to protect the safety of its airspace.
The second is that the United States has taken an extremely bad attitude in the process of selling weapons. Looking at the various performances of the United States in this round of arms sales, it not only attaches a lot of political conditions to the arms sales orders, but even to some extent regards the sale of weapons as a "gift" to the UNITED Arab Emirates and a chip to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. In the eyes of the Americans, if the UAE wants to buy F-35 fighter jets, it must adjust its domestic and foreign affairs according to the wishes of the United States. If the UAE is a country surrounded by strong enemies, it may temporarily agree to the unreasonable demands of the United States, but now the security environment of the UAE is more optimistic, and the United States is so arrogant that it is a self-destructive order!
Some US right-wing media have tried to blame China for the failure of this F-35 arms sale order, but in fact, the root cause of the UAE's breach of the treaty is the arrogance and hegemony of the United States. If the United States can negotiate and not use arms sales orders as a bargaining chip to grossly interfere in the internal affairs of the UAE, will the UAE tear up this order? If the United States had not instigated Australia to tear up the submarine order signed with France, would France have been so active in "cutting off the beard"? It can be said that the bitter fruit brewed by the United States itself must ultimately be eaten by itself, and throwing the pot to China is just self-deception. Of course, if the United States does not rein in its hegemonic behavior, this kind of thing will only become more and more frequent in the future.
According to the information that has been disclosed, the context of the facts has gradually become clear, and the French interception of the US order has become a high probability event, and from this matter we can also see that the relationship between the United States and Europe has become very delicate! As many commentators have said in their articles: Hegemonic countries in many cases, the mouth is talking about isms, in fact, it is all business. If Europe, especially France, the most representative country in Europe, continues to "admit" to the United States, then Europe's future is worrying. According to this development, it is even likely that it will be directly reduced to the "cash machine" of the United States.
In addition, Aerospace Jun insisted that in the big chess game of the Sino-US game, on the basis of high vigilance, we should still unite all the forces that can be united, after all, from the UAE's rejection of the US sky-high arms orders and the suspected French pry orders, it can be seen that "the world is bitter for a long time." And if we want to break hegemony, what we have to do now is to unite people's hearts and minds, gather strength, and with the joint coordination of the global countries opposing hegemonism, victory will inevitably belong to the people, and it will eventually belong to the people!