Ex-Australian PM explains mutual distrust with Macron over submarines

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
21 Jun 2023 09:27

Australia PM justifies the submarine scandal saying they kept France in the dark over fear that the latter would "kill" their deal with the UK-US.

Ex-Australian PM Scott Morrison during a press conference in Sydney, February 23, 2022 (AFP)

The former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison justified Australia's dishonesty with France as being incentivized by Australia's fear that Macron's backlash would 'kill' his new deal with the UK-US, AFP reports after reviewing the official's testimonies in the upcoming book "The Secret History of The Five Eyes."

The submarine scandal saw Morrison working up two concurrent submarine deals knowing they would be discarding the former struck with France.

"Our strategy was that if we are going to do this, we can't let it lead to the French knowing -- in case that damages the French deal. So, we had to build Chinese walls -- pardon the pun -- around our discussions," said Morrison.

Morrison contends that leaving Macron in the dark on the concurrent deal is "not the same as lying to him."

The Australian-French submarine deal, which was worth $36.5 billion, dubbed the "contract of the century," entailed that France's Naval Group would build conventionally powered submarines. Morrison explains he set out for a concurrent deal with a nuclear-powered submarine deal for fear of the alleged security threat from China.

"If there was ever a time to have a crack at getting nuclear-powered subs, it was either now or never."

Morrison kept Macron in the dark until after the deal with the UK-US was finalized because he feared that they would pull out to appease France. He says he didn't want to give France the time to "kill" their second deal after knowing Australia had discarded the first.

Australia announced it was canceling a contract with France for conventional submarines and would instead build nuclear-powered submarines with US and British technology after forming a security partnership with those countries.

US President Joe Biden, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued a joint statement announcing the formation of a new defense and security partnership called “AUKUS,” with the first project in its framework being the construction of nuclear submarines.

According to the Joint Leaders Statement on AUKUS, the Alliance aims to "promote deeper information and technology sharing. We will foster deeper integration of security and defense-related science, technology, industrial bases, and supply chains. And in particular, we will significantly deepen cooperation on a range of security and defense capabilities."

France was outraged by the pact, as Australia was set to purchase submarines from France, in accordance with a deal signed in February 2019. Australia was to purchase 12 conventional submarines from France for US $50 billion, which the French called the "contract of the century."