Going nuclear! French fury as US and UK get subs contract
RELATIONS with France plunged to a new low yesterday as the French were cut out of a £27billion deal to build Australia’s first nuclear submarines.
Paris said it had been ‘stabbed in the back’ after the secret deal to cancel the French contract and replace it with British and US vessels.
Boris Johnson sprang the news in an unprecedented televised news conference alongside Mr Biden and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday night in a move to counter Chinese power in the Pacific with a new ‘AUKUS’ alliance.
But France said it had been betrayed by its Nato allies and would now turn to the EU for its military security.
‘This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr (Donald) Trump used to do,’ foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told franceinfo radio. ‘I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies.’
Three months ago, French president Emmanuel Macron put on a show of unity with Mr Johnson and Mr Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall.
But the EU confirmed it had not been warned of the announcement and Downing Street added fuel to the fire by claiming Brexit made the deal easier.
‘I wouldn’t dispute the fact that we’re able to move in this way now we’re not a part of the European Union,’ said Mr Johnson’s spokesman. ‘And that is to the benefit of the British.’
The PM said relations with France
remained ‘rock-solid’ and the deal would create hundreds of UK jobs. ‘It is not intended to be adversarial towards any other power,’ he told MPs, adding it merely reflected ‘the close relationship that we have with the US and Australia’.
New Zealand, which has an antinuclear policy, will not allow the subs. And China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the deal ‘gravely damages regional peace and stability, intensifies the arms race, and undermines international non-proliferation efforts’.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has urged the EU to develop its own military capability after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.