On Saturday, France accused Australia and the United States of lying about Canberra canceling a huge contract with Paris to take delivery of submarines from it, considering what happened as a “serious crisis” between the allies.

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the recall of his country’s ambassadors in Canberra and Washington, in an unprecedented step to express his anger at Australia’s decision to cancel a huge deal to obtain from France nuclear-powered submarines and replace them with American ones.

This disagreement thwarts hopes that relations between Paris and Washington can be improved during the era of US President Joe Biden, at a time when French interest is focused on strengthening the security strategy of the European Union and thinking about defining the new strategic concept of NATO.

Speaking to him on France 2 channel, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian showed no indication of a French tendency towards calming the crisis, using clear non-diplomatic language towards Australia and the United States, as well as Britain.

Le Drian justified the recall of the French ambassadors in Canberra and Washington, attributing this to “the presence of a serious crisis between us.”

He said that this measure, unprecedented in the history of relations between Paris and Washington, “is very symbolic. There has been lying, there has been duplicity, there has been a huge undermining of trust, there has been contempt, so things are not going well between us.”

“We have summoned our ambassadors to try to understand and to show our long-time partner countries that we feel great resentment and that there is indeed a serious crisis between us,” the French minister added.

On the other hand, Le Drian did not give importance to the possibility of summoning the ambassador to London, saying, “We know their permanent opportunism,” referring to the British a few months after Brexit, adding that Britain is not the first party concerned with this issue.

On Thursday, France accused Australia of “stabbing it in the back”, and Washington also accused it of continuing the behavior of former President Donald Trump, after Canberra canceled the huge deal with Paris.

France’s partially state-owned Naval Group was selected to supply 12 nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, based on a model of the French Barracuda submarine under development.

But US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a new defense alliance with Australia and Britain to expand US nuclear submarine technology to Australia as well as cyber defense, applied artificial intelligence and undersea capabilities.

On London’s role in the new agreement that took place during the era of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Le Drian said that “Britain, in all this matter, is somewhat like the third wheel.”

Le Drian also saw that the current crisis will affect the definition of the new strategic concept of NATO, without referring to the possibility of leaving the alliance.

He said, “The alliance has begun researching its basic principles at the request of the President of the Republic. The next NATO summit in Madrid will lead to a new strategic concept. Of course, what has just happened will affect this determination.”

He added, “But at the same time, Europe must have its own strategic compass, and this will be under the responsibility of France in the first half of 2022,” referring to the French presidency of the European Union, starting from the first of next January.

And he considered that after the hasty withdrawal of the Americans from Afghanistan, without consulting with the allies, and after the submarine file, “if the Europeans want to remain present in history, they must unite and together defend their interests, then their fate will be completely different.”

“military cooperation”

On Saturday, a NATO official played down the seriousness of the dispute between France, the United States and Australia over the submarine deal, ruling out that it would have an impact on “military cooperation” within the alliance.

“There may be repercussions or consequences as a result of this agreement, but I do not expect at the moment that it will have an impact on cohesion within NATO,” Admiral Rob Power, head of the NATO Military Committee, told reporters in Athens.

“As far as I know, Australia is a partner, but it is not part of NATO. There are many agreements between countries that can have an impact on NATO from a political point of view.”

“But at the moment I don’t see it as having an impact on military cooperation within NATO,” Power said after a conference of NATO military leaders.

The new deal, widely considered to be aimed at countering the rise of China, angered France, which lost its nearly A$50 billion ($36.5 billion, €31 billion) contract with Australia in 2016.

On Friday, a White House official expressed his “regret” for summoning the French ambassador, but said, “We will continue to work in the coming days to resolve our differences, as we have done at other points throughout our long alliance.”

AFP