Angry France cancels meetings with Ausie, UK officials over scrapped deal

Paris, Sep 20 (UNI) Still seething over Canberra scrapping a $66 billion worth submarine deal in favour of a new agreement with the US and UK, France on Monday cancelled meetings with British and Australian officials and is trying to rally European Union allies to push for more European sovereignty.
Australia and Britain said on Monday that the diplomatic crisis with France wouldn’t affect their longer-term relations with Paris.
Relations between France and the US and Australia have nosedived after the latter two countries alongwith the UK announced a new trilateral security partnership ‘AUKUS’, and as a first step announced a deal to help Canberra acquire a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines.
On Thursday, Australia said it would scrap the $66 billion deal signed in 2016 with France’s Naval Group to build a fleet of conventional submarines.
In reaction, French President Emmanuel Macron recalled his ambassadors from Washington and Canberra, and Paris’ anger is showing no signs of subsiding.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, in New York to represent France at the UN General Assembly, is expected to address a news conference to address the situation, said France 24.
He’s also meeting with foreign ministers from the other 26 European Union nations in New York, where he will discuss the consequences of the submarine deal and France’s vision for a more strategically independent Europe.
“It’s not just a Franco-Australian affair, but a rupture of trust in alliances,” Le Drian was quoted as saying in the French newspaper Ouest-France. “It calls for serious reflection about the very concept of what we do with alliances.”
Le Drian said he has cancelled a meeting with his Australian counterpart in New York “for obvious reasons.” They had been scheduled to meet with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, but instead it will be a France-India meeting alone.
Le Drian had called up the Indian External Affairs Minister on Saturday.
Le Drian said he has no meeting scheduled with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken while he’s at the UN, but might “pass him in the hallways”.
While US President Joe Biden is hosting the Australian and British leaders this week, he won’t see French President Emmanuel Macron, who’s not traveling to the UN.
Macron is expected to talk with Biden in the coming days about the submarine crisis, according to the French government.
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told BFM TV that Macron would seek “clarification” of the cancellation in his call with Biden. Discussions would take place over contract clauses, notably compensation for the French side.
France’s Defense Minister also cancelled a meeting with her British counterpart this week.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted that Britain’s relationship with France is “ineradicable.” Speaking on his way to New York, he said, “AUKUS is not in any way meant to be zero-sum, it’s not meant to be exclusionary. It’s not something that anybody needs to worry about and particularly not our French friends.”
“I don’t regret the decision to put Australia’s national interest first,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday.
Morrison said he understood France’s disappointment over the cancellation of the submarine deal – valued at $40 billion in 2016 – but reiterated that Australia must always take decisions in its best interests.
“This is an issue that had been raised by me directly some months ago and we continued to talk those issues through, including by defence ministers and others,” he told a briefing.
The Australian Navy’s six Collins-class submarines are set to reach the end of their service life in 2036. In 2016, France was chosen over Germany and Japan to help Australia replace its older subs with 12 new diesel-electric submarines. At the time, the Australian government called the Future Submarine project the largest and most complex defense acquisition in the nation’s history.
However, with China’s military presence and political interests in the Indo-Pacific region growing, Australia said it needs a type of submarine France cannot provide.
“The security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region have grown significantly. Military modernization is occurring at an unprecedented rate and capabilities are rapidly advancing and their reach expanding,” read an Australian media statement on Thursday. “The technological edge enjoyed by Australia and our partners is narrowing.”
China has called the AUKUS partnership and, more specifically, the sharing of nuclear technology, irresponsible. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the new agreement threatens the stability of the Indo-Pacific.
In Australia, officials insisted France’s anger wouldn’t derail negotiations on an Australia-European Union free trade deal, that was earlier expected to be concluded this year.
French Ambassador to Australia Jean-Pierre Thebault denied media reports that France was lobbying the EU not to sign the trade deal with Australia, which has been under negotiation since 2018.
Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan said he would travel to Paris within weeks for trade negotiations and was “very keen to touch base with my French counterpart.”
“I see no reason why those discussions won’t continue,” Tehan said.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said they’re studying the impact of the Australian submarine agreement.