SUBMARINE DEAL CANCELLATION SHOULD NOT HAVE SURPRISED FRANCE
SYDNEY—France should not have been surprised that Australia canceled a submarine contract, as major concerns about delays, cost overruns and suitability had been aired officially and publicly for years, Australian politicians said.
Paris has recalled its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington, saying it was blindsided by Canberra’s decision to build nuclear-powered submarines with the
United States and Britain rather than stick with its contract for French diesel submarines.
Emerging problem
Yet as early as September 2018, an independent oversight board led by a former US Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter had advised Australia to look at alternatives, and questioned whether the project was in the national interest, a 2020 public report from the country’s auditor-general shows.
Australian parliamentary hearings and reports on the project, first priced at $40 billion and more recently at $60 billion, even before construction had begun, also showed problems emerging. In June the defense secretary told parliament “contingency planning” for the program was under way.
“They would have to have their eyes shut not to realize the danger they were facing,” said Rex Patrick, an independent senator for South Australia, referring to France.
Government ministers said this week Canberra had been “up front” with Paris about the problems.
A French lawmaker also raised questions in parliament in June about Australian condo cerns over delays, and whether Australia might be considering submarine alternatives, French parliamentary records show.
Against Australia’s interest
“We chose not to go through a gate in a contract,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters on Monday. “The contract was set up that way, and we chose not to go through it because we believed to so would ultimately not be in Australia’s interests.”
French officials have not disputed that there were difficulties, as there might be with any big contract, but said Canberra never suggested it wanted nuclear propulsion, even when Paris brought up the subject. Foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week called the cancellation “a stab in the back.”