Australia has defended its decision to cancel a multi-billion dollar submarine purchase in France to agree to a new security agreement with the US and the UK.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison dismissed all sorts of allegations that Australia had lied, saying France should have known it was ready to break the agreement.
Crisis Among Allies
France says the recent Aukus agreement has led to “a major crisis” among its allies.
In an unprecedented move, France has called back all of its ambassadors from the US and Australia as a sign of protest.
Under the Aukus agreement, Australia will be provided with the technology to build nuclear-powered submarines as a means of counteracting China’s influence in the disputed South China Sea.
What Is The Aukus Pact?
The partnership ended a $ 37bn (£ 27bn) agreement signed by Australia in 2016 with France to build 12 submarines. France says it was informed of the agreement a few hours before the public announcement was done earlier this week.
Mr Morrison on Sunday said he understood France’s view, but had always been clear about Australia’s position.
The French government “would have had every reason to know that we had deep and grave concerns”, he said.
“Ultimately this was a decision about whether the submarines that were being built, at great cost to the Australian taxpayer, were going to be able to do a job that we needed it to do when they went into service and our strategic judgment based on the best possible of intelligence and defence advice was that it would not.”
PM Morrison Speaks
Mr Morrison’s comments came after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France 2 television that “there was a lie, a fraud, a serious breach of trust and contempt” for the deal.
He said French ambassadors to the United States and Australia were reminded to “reconsider the situation”, but there was no “need” for the return of the UK ambassador, who described it as a “third wheel”.
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to hold talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in the upcoming days.
“We want explanations,” French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Sunday.
What Are Other Countries Saying?
Meanwhile, newly appointed UK Secretary of State Liz Truss defended the agreement in a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, saying it showed Britain’s readiness to be “hard-hearted” in defending its interests.
The treaty stipulates that Australia will become the seventh nation in the world to use nuclear-powered submarines. It will also see that partners share cyber skills, artificial intelligence and other undersea technologies.
China has blamed the three powers involved in the security agreement for having a “Cold War concept”.
