Washington Urges London to Patch up Relations With Paris
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France had described Australia's retraction of the submarine deal as a "stab in the back."
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France's Foreign Minister previously called the decision a "betrayal"
According to The Guardian, in the aftermath of the tensions between Australia and France due to the submarine contract that was lost between Australia and France.
France was outraged when Australia backed out of a 2019 agreement to acquire submarines from France. Australia planned to pay France $50 billion for 12 conventional submarines, dubbed the "deal of the century" by the French.
Instead, Australia joined a new strategic partnership (AUKUS) with the UK and the US. The alliance will work to "support a peaceful and rules-based international order."
Instead of complying with the agreement, Australia announced it would cancel the deal to instead build eight nuclear-powered submarines with American and British technology.
"It's really a stab in the back. We had established a relationship of trust with Australia, this trust has been betrayed," Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Info radio.
The US attempted to salvage the tense relations with Blinken reaffirming that France is "a vital partner in the Indo-Pacific." Blinken was in Paris on October 5 and met with Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Foreign Minister.
A diplomat expressed that "We had hoped for a three-legged stool of Britain, Europe, and the US, but we are having to run more of a hub and spoke operation in which we reach out separately to democracies in Europe, UK, and Asia.”
The Guardian reveals that while the US was looking for ways to break the news of Australia canceling the agreement and protesting the alienation of France, the Australians insisted on keeping it secret.
Le Drian criticized Canberra, saying it took “a leap into the unknown by choosing to resort to technology that Australians do not and will not master in the future. They thus place themselves entirely at the mercy of developments in American policy. I wish our Australian partner, who made the choice for reasons of security – justified by the escalation of tensions with China – to the detriment of sovereignty, does not discover later that it has sacrificed both.”
