by The United States struggled on Thursday to overcome the backlash when France protested Australia’s withdrawal from a major arms deal in favor of US nuclear submarines.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled a new trilateral alliance between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, including submarines.
China has expressed outrage - as did France, who invited the Washington Gala to celebrate America’s oldest alliance and accused Biden, in which he had high hopes, of his “America First” predecessor. Not different from Donald Trump.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he was “outraged” at the loss of the so-called “Treaty of the Century”, which was worth 50 50 billion (31 billion euros, .5 36.5 billion) when it was signed in 2016. .
“This unilateral, sudden and unexpected decision is very reminiscent of what Mr. Trump will do,” Le Drian told France Info Radio.
“It’s really a stab in the back. We had a relationship of trust with Australia. That trust has been betrayed,” he said of Australia.
Meeting with his Australian counterpart in Washington, US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken, a fluent French speaker who preferred to build ties with Europe, said he considered France “an important partner” and the sea. They see no territorial division between the Atlantic and Pacific allies.
“We want to seize every opportunity to deepen transatlantic cooperation in the Indian Ocean and around the world,” Blanken told reporters.
He said the United States had been in contact with France for “the last 24-48 hours” to discuss the dispute.
However, a spokesman for the French embassy said the contact was made only after the news broke.
The embassy said it was reducing memories of France’s role in the US Revolutionary Guards’ naval war on Friday, with a ceremony at the ambassador’s residence canceled.
- Australian selection -
Despite French anger, the submarine deal was proving increasingly controversial in Australia due to rising costs.
Speaking in Washington, Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said the country’s existing submarines would only provide an edge in the 2040s, and military leaders had recommended a change to a nuclear-powered version.
“The decision we made in the end is in the best interests of our national security,” Dutton said.
Australia will become only the second nation after Britain to have access to US nuclear technology for submarines.
Dutton said it was also open to the growing circulation of US troops. Prime Minister Scott Morrison had earlier said that Australia would receive a long-range US Tom Hawk cruise missile.
Australia has come under intense diplomatic and trade pressure from China, a major market for its agricultural and mineral exports due to its close alliance with the United States.
China accuses US of launching arms race According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, China’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Wang Qun, called the tripartite move a “total nuclear proliferation operation.”
Expressing solidarity with Australia, Blanken said, “Beijing has seen in recent months that Australia will not back down and that economic retaliation and threats of pressure will not work.”
Look at China -
In another move seen as a united front against China, Morrison will travel to Washington next week for the first private quadripartite “quad” summit with US, Japanese and Indian leaders.
Biden has called the rise of China’s dictatorship the biggest American challenge of the 21st century and reshaped US foreign policy around it.
Last month, it withdrew the remaining troops from Afghanistan after 20 years, calling the war a “big picture distraction.”
But Le Drian called the US move a “major breach of trust” as France worked to coordinate Asia policy with Washington.
France, like the United States, is a Pacific power with New Caledonia and French Polynesia on its outskirts, home to about 7,000 troops.
French Defense Minister Florence Parley said Australia’s face reflected the growing need for Europeans to expand their “strategic sovereignty”.
“In terms of geopolitics and international relations, this is serious,” he told RFI Radio.
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