Does French President Macron's autonomy mean European independence?

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today is Mario Ikunomo. He is a banker in Zurich, New York, Philadelphia and a few other places, and he gives us a European report. Mario, so many things are happening in the world and in Europe. Where do you want to start this morning?

0:21 Speaker 2 Yes, good morning. Well let’s start by wishing each other a happy Easter. Today is Greek Easter, and of course we celebrate that, and all the other people who celebrate Greek Easter with us, Greek Orthodox Easter, let’s wish them a happy Easter as well. I think we can start today with Turkey, and let’s discuss two quick things about

0:40 Turkey before we move on to the Ukraine. And of course the President Macron and the statements he recently made aboard his airplane on his return from China that have seemed to have startled a lot of people. And I’ll try to help and walk you through why America should not be startled by the statements he made. So in Turkey,

1:00 we know that the Kuyu nuclear power plant is actually going to start enriching the uranium later this month. This plant is actually ninety nine percent owned by Russia’s Rosatom, company, so Turkey doesn’t essentially own it. It’s owned by the Russians and they will produce energy at this nuclear power plant based in Turkey, which they will then sell to Turkey.

1:26 It’s interesting we now have a NATO member that has a Russian nuclear power plant in its country and it’s going to be buying energy from it. So once again we need to question exactly what is going on with respect to NATO and what is going on with respect to Turkey inside of NATO. There is one other thing

1:46 to discuss about Turkey apologies if you will. Anadolu, which is a helicopter carrier, has actually now been put into service. This will actually change Turkey’s reach from that of just simply a regional power to a geopolitical power, meaning that it’s going to be able to have this ship sail to different parts of the world into different seas to

2:13 participate in both humanitarian and any other types of missions. This helicopter carrier in and of itself will actually stimulate the need for additional frigates to be sold to Turkey or made in Turkey, as well as additional submarines. So we can expect Turkey’s navy to actually get a boost up in the coming years with respect to the number

2:35 of ships that it’s going to actually construct in order to be able to marry up support this very large ship.

2:41 Speaker 1 With the relationships that Turkey is having with the Russia and Putin and the new alliance is being formed, are you concerned that it’s possible that Turkey, being a NATO nation, could flip to the new the new Empire of Russia, China, etc.

3:03 Speaker 2 I think Turkey is going to play both sides. I think Turkey will do what it needs to do to continue to try to maintain its role as wanting to be the leader in the Muslim world. I think Turkey will actually start to expand its views beyond simply the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. This ship in and of

3:23 itself doesn’t allow that to happen, but everything else that’s happening around the world will actually help and complement Turkey. For example, it’s not too ridiculous to think that Turkey might actually participate in join military exercises with the Chinese and the Russians and perhaps the Indian Ocean, or in perhaps one of the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, the idea

3:45 being that Turkey would want to participate and be a part of something which would actually increase its global presence. So that is something that NATO needs to consider. Once again, I’m going to repeat I have never believed that. I continue to not believe that NATO is as powerful as everyone thinks it is. I think at the end of

4:03 the day, most countries within NATO may vote in favor of doing whatever it is the US suggests that they should do. But there will be countries and France is one of them at this point who are going to start questioning whether or not they want to participate in any type of NATO related activities.

4:20 Speaker 1 Well, you know, the history says that we saved there behind in World War One, saved there behind in World War Two. I hope there’s no more world wars. That’s all I can say. What else, what else do you want to start on?

4:36 Speaker 2 Well, let’s also discuss Ukraine, in a statement which was recently made by their foreign minister, mister Kuleba, who actually said that it’s time now for the Black Sea to become a NATO sea in much the same way that the Baltic Sea is a NATO sea. Those types of statements are careless, they’re reckless, and they’re very dangerous to Kremlin.

4:56 Of course, clickly responded and said, there is no chance that the Black Sea will become a NATO sea. And the problem is we have to be careful as Americans and Europeans for that matter, because if they decide to say and do something like that, who’s to say that the Chinese, who are already saying that the South China

5:14 Sea belongs to them and everything in it des theirs, aren’t going to actually be encouraged by these types of statements. So I find the statement that he made to be very careless and very reckless. We also know now that the counter offensive that was supposed to happen in the spring by the Ukrainian forces against the Russians, and particularly

5:32 in the southern part of the Donbas is most likely going to be delayed. The reason being given is the document release, which the Ukrainians and many Europeans for that matter, feel has compromised intelligence and the Russians now have a better idea of exactly what’s going on in the ground in the Ukraine. But given that is still a developing story,

5:55 if we can just move on from there and let’s just discuss our last topic of the day, which is that.

6:00 Speaker 1 Of France and Mario. All the people I’ve talked to, Russia, aligned with China, aligned with all the new the New Alliance is not giving back Crimea.

6:14 Speaker 2 Yes, that’s correct.

6:15 Speaker 1 No, no, no way. What’s the old expression in the United States? No way, Jose? Are they giving back Crimea? And and my recommendation was they should. If they make a piece and eighty percent of Crimea is is Russian, then at least they should have the ability to cross into the Black Sea the Ukraine to be able to

6:44 do business.

6:46 Speaker 2 Yes, but I don’t think Russia is telling the Ukraine that it’s not allowed to cross into the Black Sea. I think that the Donbass region also will never be returned by Russia, as evidence by the fact that President Putin refers to it now as Nova Russia. The Donbass is not going to be returned either. The issue is

7:03 and it always comes back to what we’ve discussed from the beginning. This war will continue as long as people are prepared to keep cutting checks to pay for it. The second somebody somewhere says there’s no more money, the war will end. How will it end? What will be exchanged in the end that I don’t know, but I

7:22 know that we can firmly say Putin will never give back the Dawn Bass. So if that’s a non starter for the Ukrainians, they’re going to have to keep fighting and somebody somewhere is going to have to keep funding them and providing them with military hardware, which is now once again where France comes in, and we know that

7:39 on his flight back from China, President Macron made certain statements which he repeated in fact in Holland where he was on a state visit recently, and he said that there’s nothing wrong with being allies. We can be allies, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we should be a vassal state of the US. And people are alarmed and feel

8:01 that this is a betrayal. The reality is it’s not. Mccron now sees an opportunity and he also sees a threat. The threat is he doesn’t want to challenge China. He doesn’t want to lose the Chinese market for French companies.

8:13 You may have seen the news coming out regarding Airmes, the luxury goods maker, and their sales and how China was an integral part of of their sales. You know China that the Asia region without Japan generates nearly half of the sales of that group. They’re not going to walk away from something like that. And Macraun said, you know,

8:35 when he was discussing Taiwan in the issue in Taiwan, he rightly pointed out, if we can’t in Europe even sort out the Ukraine, how can we possibly even get involved in helping sort out the situation in Taiwan. And he’s right, He’s correct. Europe needs to focus on Europe.

8:54 It suits America to have a strong Europe, not a weak Europe that relies on the US everything. I know that many Americans are concerned about this. They should not be Europe. A strong Europe benefits America tremendously. And the last thing America needs I said it last week and I’ll repeat it again as a rust belt three thousand

9:15 miles away across the Atlantic that America is going to be responsible for and is going to have to keep providing for. America needs to focus on what’s important for America and Europe needs to focus on what’s important for Europe.

9:27 Macron sees that in fact, one of the regions the reasons why I suspect mccron did this is because France is essentially energy independent through its nuclear power plants. Germany, on the other hand, has just announced that it’s going to be closing it’s remaining nuclear power plants, which means Germany’s reliance on natural gas or LNG coming from the

9:50 US is going to go dramatically up, as will the cost. So Germany has essentially substituted cheap Russian natural gas for more expense of American LNG. What’s that going to do to German industry? Well, you can, you know, and join the dots together yourself. It won’t be good for German industry.

10:10 So mccronsie’s an opportunity now to take the lead in Europe. In my personal opinion, and this again is my personal opinion, there is only one natural leader in Europe and that is France. And you can say it’s because France is energy independent. You can say it’s because France remains and is the only nuclear power on the continent. But in

10:29 today’s dangerous world, we need to have strong partners, and in Europe, in France, we see a strong partner.

10:39 Speaker 1 Well, there’s we have a problem here in the States where a lot of the people that are turning towards a new Russia, Chinese, whatever you want to call it. You know that their new organization is the confidence they have in Washington in the current administration.

11:02 Speaker 2 Yeah, well, that’s something that Europeans can’t address. That’s something that Americans will have to address themselves in your upcoming elections, both at the state and at the federal level. But you know, Europeans now are slowly beginning to realize that this war in the Ukraine is continuing to drag on.

11:22 Some people privately still are questioning whether or not they should have engaged as aggressively as they have in supporting the Ukraine. And I think in time, especially with President Macron coming out now, many more are going to start saying, you know, listen, we now need to consider industry, We need to consider our own people. Don’t forget France itself

11:45 is suffering through ongoings.

11:47 Speaker 1 Maria, We’re at a time. But I want to thank you for coming on, and I want to thank you for giving the facts to the American people and your opinions. And we’ll catch up again real soon.

11:59 Speaker 2 Yes, thank you for your time. Enjoy your Sunday. Thank you