Aukus row: France asks for compensation
Armed forces minister opts out of seeing Wallace after submarine deal leads to Canberra cancellation
France has demanded compensation after Australia scrapped a submarine contract with it after it entered the new Aukus alliance with Britain and the US – its first reaction in the escalating diplomatic row between the four allies. The demand came after the Australian prime minister yesterday claimed France had long been aware of “grave concerns” about the deal. “Obviously there will be a need for compensation,” said Gabriel Attal, a French government spokesman.
FRANCE has cancelled a ministerial defence meeting with Britain this week amid an escalating diplomatic row over a nuclear-powered submarine deal.
Paris was left blindsided by the announcement last week of a new trilateral security pact between the UK, United States and Australia – known as Aukus. It involved Canberra cancelling a £72.8 billion deal with the French for diesel-electric submarines and pursuing a rival plan to acquire nuclear-powered boats with help from the US and Britain instead.
Reacting with fury this weekend, Jean-yves Le Drian, French foreign minister, accused the UK of “permanent opportunism”, while Clement Beaune, the French Europe minister, accused Britain of being a vassal state of Washington. Last night it emerged that Florence Parly, the French armed forces minister, had decided to scrap a meeting planned for this week with Ben Wallace, the Secretary of State for Defence, according to sources quoted by Reuters.
Boris Johnson last night told France not to “worry” about the pact as he attempted to calm the response from Paris. Speaking to reporters on a flight to America, the Prime Minister said the UK’S “love” for France was “ineradicable” and pointed to their joint military co-operation as proof.
Asked to respond to claims by the French that the UK was a “lap dog” to Joe Biden, Mr Johnson said Britain’s relationship with France is “of huge importance to this country”.
“What I would say is this Aukus is not in anyway meant to be zero sum, it is not meant to be exclusionary, it is not something anyone needs to worry about, particularly our French friends.”
France has called for compensation after Australia scrapped its submarine contract. The demand came after the Australian prime minister yesterday claimed France had long been aware of “grave concerns” about the deal. “Obviously there will be a need for compensation,” said Gabriel Attal, a spokesman for the French government.
“We need to exchange with our partners to see how they intend to leave this contract since there are clauses which have been signed, there is a whole procedure which has been foreseen.”
Mr Attal did not specify how much France expected in compensation for Australia’s cancellation of the £72.8billion contract to buy diesel-electric submarines, in favour of nuclear-powered technology from Britain and the US.
The penalties to be paid to Naval Group, the French company that was to have built the submarines, have been estimated by the Australian press at around €250 million (£213 million).
On Friday, France recalled its ambassadors from the US and Australia over the trilateral security agreement that sank the deal with Canberra. Mr Le Drian described the withdrawals, the first in the history of relations between the countries, as a “very symbolic” act “to show how unhappy we are and that there is a serious crisis between us”.