Thierry Meyssan: The new British Foreign Policy

The Western Press keeps repeating the same message – by leaving the European Union, the British have isolated themselves from the rest of the world, and will have to deal with terrible economic consequences. And yet, the fall in the Pound could be an advantage within the Commonwealth, which is a far greater family than the Union, and present on all six continents. Famous for its pragmatism, the City could quickly become the international centre for the yuan and implant the Chinese currency in the very heart of the Union.

Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, the Solomon Islands, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, and Tuvalu.

The United States remain uncertain of their capacity to convince the European Union to participate actively in NATO, and the will of the United Kingdom to pursue the military alliance that they have been building together since 1941 for the purpose of dominating the world. Because despite the allegations of the European leaders, the Brexit does not isolate the United Kingdom, but enables it to turn to the Commonwealth and to create links with China and Russia.

Press-ganging the Europeans into NATO

The United States and the United Kingdom had planned to push the members of the Union to announce the increase of their military budget to 2% of their GDP during the Alliance summit in Warsaw (8 and 9 July). Besides this, there were plans for the adoption of a strategy for deploying forces at the Russian border, including the creation of a joint NATO–EU logistical unit which would enable the collective use of helicopters, ships, drones and satellites.

Until now, the United Kingdom was the most important contributor of the Union in matters of Defence, providing close to 15% of the EU defence budget. Apart from this, it was in charge of Operation Atalanta for the protection of maritime transports off the coast of the Horn of Africa, and had made its ships available in the Mediterranean. And finally, it was planned that the UK would furnish troops for the constitution of EU combat groups. With the Brexit, all these engagements are now null and void.

For Washington, the question is now whether London will or will not accept to increase its direct investment in NATO, of which it is already the second most important contributor, to compensate for the part it played in the EU - but without gaining any particular advantage by doing so. Although Michael Fallon, the current British Minister of Defence, has promised not to weaken the common efforts of NATO and the EU, no-one can see why London would agree to place new troops under foreign command.

As a result, and above all, Washington is questioning the will of London to pursue the military alliance that it has been building with the Crown since 1941. Of course, we should not rule out the possibility that the Brexit may be a British trick enabling them to renegotiate their «special relation» with «the Americans» to their advantage. However, it is much more probable that London hopes to extend its relations to Beijing and Moscow without necessarily forgoing the advantages of its entente with Washington.

The Anglo-Saxon secret agencies

During the Second World War, and even before they joined the war, the United States concluded a pact with the United Kingdom which was clearly laid out in the specifics of the Atlantic Charter [1]. It called for the two countries to unite in order to guarantee freedom of maritime circulation and the extension of free trade.

This alliance was implemented by the «Five Eyes» agreement, which currently serves as the basis for the cooperation between 17 Intelligence agencies from 5 different states (the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as three other members of the Commonwealth - Australia, Canada and New Zealand).

The documents revealed by Edward Snowden attest that the Echelon network in its current form constitutes «a supranational Intelligence agency which is independent of the laws of its own member states». So the «Five Eyes» have been able to spy on personalities like the Secretary General of the UNO and the German Chancellor, and at the same time, carry out mass surveillance on their own citizens.

In identical fashion, in 1948, the United States and the United Kingdom founded a second supranational agency, the Office of Special Projects, which commanded the “stay-behind” networks of the UNO, known today by the name of Gladio.

Professor Daniele Ganser has shown that this Bureau has organised a number of coups d’etat and terrorist operations in Europe [2]. If at first we thought that the «strategy of tension» was aimed at preventing the accession to power of Communist governments in Europe by democratic means, it soon became clear that it was aimed mainly at feeding the phobia of Communism, and thus justifying Anglo-Saxon military protectionism. Newly-declassified documents have shown that this mechanism exists outside Europe and operates in the Arab world [3].

Finally, in 1982, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia created a third supranational agency, whose pseudo NGO’s - the National Endowment for Democracy and its four subsidiaries – ACILS, CIPE, NDI and IRI - form the visible part [4]. It specialises in the organisation of coups d’etat camouflaged as «revolutions».

Although there exists an impressive quantity of literature concerning these three programmes, we know absolutely nothing about the supranational agencies which control them.

The «special relationship»

The United States, who proclaimed their independence by separating from the Crown, only became reconciled with the United Kingdom at the end of the 19th century (the Great Rapprochement). The two states allied for the Spanish war in Cuba, and then for the exploitation of their colonial trading posts in China - in other words, when Washington discovered its imperialist vocation. In 1902, a trans-Atlantic club was formed in order to affirm their refound friendship, The Pilgrims Society. It is traditionally presided by the English monarch.

The reconciliation was sealed in 1917 with the common project for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine [5], and the United States entered the war alongside the United Kingdom. Since then, the two states have shared various military means, including, later on, the atomic bomb. However, when the Commonwealth was created, Washington refused to be part of it, considering itself to be London’s equal.

Despite a few disagreements during the British attacks on Egypt (Suez Canal) or against Argentina (the «Falklands» war), or again during the US attacks on Grenada, the two powers have always offered each other strong support.

The Crown financed the beginning of Barack Obama’s electoral campaign in 2008, by pouring in generous contributions via the Iraqi-British arms dealer Nadhmi Auchi. During his first term, a large number of the new President’s direct collaborators were secretly members of the Pilgrims’ Society, of which the US section was then presided by Timothy Geithner. But President Obama progressively moved away from the group, giving the Crown the impression that it was not being paid in return. Things worsened with the sharp words published in The Atlantic against David Cameron [6] - and the visit of the Obama couple to Queen Elizabeth II for her birthday did little to heal any wounds.

The Commonwealth

By disengaging from the European Union, and moving away from the United States, the United Kingdom has not isolated itself by any means, but can once again play it’s master card – the Commonwealth.

It has been completely overlooked that in 1936, Winston Churchill launched the idea of incorporating the present states of the European Union into the Commonwealth. His proposition was hindered by the rise of danger and the World War. It was only after the allied Victory that this same Churchill launched the idea of the «United States of Europe» [7] and convened the Conference of the European Movement in The Hague [8].

The Commonwealth is an organisation of 53 member states whose only politics are founded on basic English values – racial equality, the rule of law, human rights in the face of «National Interest». However, it suggests that its members develop business and sports skills. Besides this, it shares its experts in all sectors.

Queen Elizabeth II, who is the sovereign of 16 of the member states, is the Head of the Commonwealth (an elective rather than a hereditary title).

What do the British want?

From London’s point of view, it is the United States who have violated the «special relation» by giving in to the immoderation (hubris) of a unipolar world, and conducting their own foreign and financial policies by themselves - and this, at a time when they are no longer the prime economic power in the world nor the prime conventional military power.

From this point on, it is in the interest of the United Kingdom to cease from placing «all its eggs in one basket» - to conserve the common instruments it shares with Washington while relying on the Commonwealth and weaving new relations with Beijing and Moscow, either directly, or else via the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

And specifically, on the day of the Brexit, the SCO accepted the adhesion of two members of the Commonwealth, India and Pakistan, while it had never included Commonwealth states before [9].

While we know nothing of the contacts that the United Kingdom must have already made with Russia, we may note its rapprochement with China.

Last March, the London Stock Exchange, which manages the exchanges of the City and Milan, revealed its project of fusion with the Deutsche Börse, which manages the Stock Exchange of Frankfort, the clearing house for Clearstream and Eurex. It was planned that the two companies should decide on the operation just after the Brexit referendum. This announcement is all the more astonishing in that European regulations formally prohibit such an operation, which is the equivalent of creating a «dominant position». The decision thus supposed that the two companies were anticipating the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

Furthermore, the London Stock Exchange announced an agreement with the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS), and, in June, became the primary Stock Exchange in the world to rate Chinese treasury bonds. All the elements were in place to transform the City into a Chinese Trojan Horse in the European Union, to the detriment of US supremacy.

Thierry Meyssan
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