EU Postpones Free Trade Agreement Talks with Australia
The submarine crisis continues to unfold.
The European Union has postponed the 12th round of discussions on a free trade deal with Australia for a month due to a diplomatic disagreement over the US submarine contract with Australia under the recently founded AUKUS alliance.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia announced the foundation of AUKUS in mid-September as a forum for defense and security cooperation. The announcement came as the Australian capital, Canberra, unilaterally withdrew from the $66 billion agreement on submarines with France. This move enraged France.
According to the Australian Financial Review, the 12th round of discussions was supposed to take place in October, but will now take place in November, as part of the EU initiative.
The European Union has not provided formal explanations for the delay, but a European observer close to the negotiations informed Sputnik that it was due to the submarine issue.
Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan, who is on his way to Europe to meet with his EU counterpart, Valdis Dombrovskis, has urged the bloc to resume talks on a free trade pact.
The diplomatic disagreement
After Australia's withdrawal from the submarine agreement with France, it was criticized by the French who expressed that this not only undermines confidence in France but in Europe as a whole.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that the submarine issue will affect the future of NATO.
Le Drian considered Canberra's cancellation of a huge contract with Paris that stipulates buying submarines from it a "serious crisis", denouncing "lying, duplicity and a major undermining of confidence," as well as "contempt" from France's allies.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded to criticism saying that he assumed Paris was aware of Canberra's "serious and deep concerns" about French submarines before the deal was scrapped.
He then dismissed French criticism over the cancellation of the deal, saying that he had raised the issue in talks with the French President back in June.