France blasted Canberra and Washington on Thursday, denouncing a “blow in the back” Australian and a decision “brutal” by Joe Biden after the announcement of a strategic partnership between Australia, the United States and Great Britain which led to the termination of a gigantic contract for the supply of French submarines to Australia.
Paris all angry
“It’s really, in good French, a blow in the back”, indignant the head of the French diplomacy Jean-Yves Le Drian on the radio France Info, saying to himself “angry, with a lot of bitterness”.
“We had established a relationship of trust with Australia. This trust is betrayed”, launched Jean-Yves Le Drian, who had concluded the “contract of the century” on submarines when he was Minister of Defense.
At the same time, the Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly lamented on RFI “very bad news for the respect of the given word” and a decision “grave” in international politics.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Thursday the termination of this gigantic contract of 90 billion Australian dollars (56 billion euros, over the entire length) concluded in 2016 with France for the supply of conventional submarines.
Canberra preferred to conclude a strategic partnership with the United States and Great Britain including in particular the delivery of nuclear-powered submarines by Washington.
The two French ministers also did not mince their words vis-à-vis US President Joe Biden, accused of trampling his allies.
“We learned suddenly from a statement by President Biden that here is the contract that was concluded between France and the Australians ends, and then the United States will propose a nuclear offer, the content of which we do not know, to the Australians “, pointed out Jean-Yves Le Drian.
“This is not done between allies (..) We were talking about all this with the United States a short time ago and there is this rupture. It is quite unbearable”, he hammered.
“We are clear on how the United States views its allies and partners”, for her part, estimated Ms. Parly.
The French Senate, for its part, questioned “the exact nature” of the relationship between Paris and Washington.
Senators are also concerned about the sale of nuclear powered submarines to a non-nuclear weapon country.
That “has no precedent”, “the United States and the United Kingdom are changing the rules of the game”, according to the Senate press release.
The French Naval Group had been selected by Canberra to supply 12 conventional (non-nuclear) propulsion submarines derived from future French Barracuda nuclear submarines.
Asked about the question of possible compensation, Ms. Parly replied: “we are going to study all the ways” and try to “limit as much as possible the consequences for Naval Group”.
“We’re going to need some clarification. We have contracts. The Australians need to tell us how they’re doing.”, added the head of French diplomacy, calling for “explanations” in Australia as in Washington.
The termination of the contract is expected to cost Canberra several hundred million dollars in compensation, according to the Australian press.
“Moderate disappointment” of the CGT according to whom “the risk was known”
For Vincent Hurel, secretary general of the CGT Naval Group in Cherbourg (France), this termination of contract, “it’s a moderate disappointment because we had moderate enthusiasm when signing the contract”. “The risk was known”, he declared to the AFP.
“We were waiting for the implementation. Everything was not going perfectly”, added the trade unionist, who said to himself “disappointed but not surprised”.
“The failure of this contract will have very moderate industrial consequences because it was not sufficiently advanced”, added Mr. Hurel. “We hope that this feedback will make our management think about a strategy on the sale of weapons.”
According to him, 500 jobs are currently occupied in activities related to this contract, as well as a “big hundred Australians”.
He said he hoped that Naval Group “refocuses on its activities of the French Navy” and “that we stop this capital construction on everything that can bring profit”.
Reference-feedproxy.google.com