by France24
France on Friday said it was immediately recalling its ambassadors to the US and Australia for consultations after Australia struck a deal with the US and UK, which ended a $40 billion French-designed submarine deal.
President Emmanuel Macron made the exceptional decision due to the “gravity of the announcements on September 15 by Australia and the United States”, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in a statement.
The rare diplomatic backlash against France’s allies came two days after Australia announced the scrapping of a major purchase of French conventional submarines in favour of US nuclear-powered submarines.
The announcement represented “unacceptable behaviour between allies and partners”, said the statement.
Australia in 2016 had chosen France’s Naval Group, partly owned by the state, to build 12 conventionally powered submarines, based on France’s Barracuda nuclear-powered subs in development.
The contract was worth around 50 billion Australian dollars (€31 billion, $36.5 billion) when announced in 2016.
But on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden, along with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announced a new US security alliance between their countries that would develop an Australian nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
The Australia-UK-US alliance – dubbed AUKUS – has been strongly condemned by France, with Le Drian calling it “a stab in the back”.
AUKUS overshadows Europe’s Indo-Pacific plan…
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