19 September (WNN) — US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron will talk about the United States’ recent nuclear submarine deal with Australia in the coming days, a French government spokesman said on Sunday.
Spokesman Gabriel Attl said Biden had requested the phone call because Macron had sought “clarification” about the trilateral partnership between the United States, Australia and Britain, in which France agreed to provide Australia with submarine technology in a multilateral manner. Billion dollar contract was lost.
“What is at stake in this crisis is strategy (in the Pacific), which is more important than commercial considerations,” Atal said. “That’s what we’ll discuss.”
The United States, Australia and Britain on Wednesday announced the formation of a tripartite security partnership known as AUKUS, saying its first major initiative would be to deliver a nuclear-powered submarine fleet to Australia .
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the submarines, which would not have nuclear weapons, would be built “in close cooperation with the United Kingdom and the United States” in Adelaide, Australia.
France responded on Friday by recalling its ambassador to the United States, Philippe tienne, and Australian ambassador Jean-Pierre Thébault.
Announcing the ambassadors’ removal, France’s Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian described the cancellation of the deal as “unacceptable behavior between allies and partners” as France accused Australia of providing adequate warnings. was accused of failing.
Morrison said on Sunday that he had conveyed Australia’s concerns about the deal to France, while only informing them on the day the new deal was announced.
“I think he would have every reason to know that we had deep and serious concerns that the capability being delivered by the Attack class submarine was not serving our strategic interests,” Morrison told reporters.
“This is an issue that I raised directly a few months ago and we continued to talk about those issues, which involved the Defense Minister and others.”
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