The French government has hit out Australia’s decision to tear up a submarine deal with France worth more than €50 billion to instead acquire American-made nuclear-powered submarines.
“It’s a stab in the back. We had established a trusting relationship with Australia, and this trust was betrayed,” French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a Franceinfo interview Thursday morning. Le Drian added he was “angry and very bitter about this break up,” adding that he had spoken to his Australian counterpart days ago and received no serious indication of the move.
Under a deal announced Wednesday by U.S. President Joe Biden, Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. will form a new alliance to be known as AUKUS, which will see the three countries share advanced technologies with one another. As part of the new pact, Canberra will abandon its submarine deal with France.
Le Drian indicated that France would fight the move. “This is not over,” he said. “We’re going to need clarifications. We have contracts. The Australians need to tell us how they’re getting out of it. We’re going to need explanation. We have an intergovernmental deal that we signed with great fanfare in 2019, with precise commitments, with clauses, how are they getting out of it? They’re going to have to tell us. So this is not the end of the story.”
And he added that the announcement of the move was reminiscent of Biden’s predecessor in office, Donald Trump. “What concerns me as well is the American behavior,” he said. “This brutal, unilateral, unpredictable decision looks very much like what Mr. Trump used to do … Allies don’t do this to each other … It’s rather insufferable.”
In a statement released before the interview, Le Drian and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said: “This decision is contrary to the letter and spirit of the cooperation that prevailed between France and Australia.”
The statement continued: “The American choice to push aside an ally and European partner like France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region … shows a lack of consistency France can only note and regret.”
The Franco-Australian submarine deal has been significantly troubled for years, with tensions building between French shipbuilder Naval Group and Canberra over cost blowouts, design changes and local industry involvement in the project to build 12 diesel Shortfin Barracuda submarines, announced in April 2016.
This story has been updated.