France Recalls Its Ambassadors To US And Australia
France on Friday recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia following its exclusion from a new security alliance and the latter’s scrapping of a submarine contract.
The rare diplomatic backlash against France’s allies came two days after Australia announced the scrapping of a major purchase of French conventional submarines in favour of US nuclear-powered submarines.
The contract was worth around 50 billion Australian dollars (€31 billion, $36.5 billion) when announced in 2016.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden, along with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announced a new US security alliance between their countries that would develop an Australian nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
The Australia-UK-US alliance – dubbed AUKUS – has been strongly condemned by France, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian calling it “a stab in the back”. A statement issued by Le Drian reads:
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At the request of the President of the Republic, I decided to immediately recall to Paris for consultations with our two ambassadors in the United States and in Australia.
This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcements made on September 15 by Australia and the United States.
The abandonment of the ocean-class submarine project that had linked Australia to France since 2016, and the announcement of a new partnership with the United States aimed at launching studies on possible future cooperation on sub -nuclear-powered navies constitute unacceptable behaviour between allies and partners, the consequences of which affect the very conception that we have of our alliances, our partnerships and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe.
