“Naval Group Responds to Australia’s Exit from French Submarine Agreement”
Naval Group remarked in a statement that it acknowledged the resolution of the Australian authorities to procure a fleet of nuclear submarines in partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom following their thorough capability assessment.
The Commonwealth opted not to advance to the subsequent phase of the program. This represents a significant letdown for Naval Group, which was presenting Australia with a regionally unbeatable conventional submarine featuring outstanding capabilities. Naval Group was also proposing Australia a sovereign submarine capability that entailed unmatched commitments regarding technology transfer, employment opportunities, and local content.
For a duration of five years, Naval Group teams, both in France and Australia, alongside our partners, have exerted their utmost effort, and Naval Group has fulfilled all its pledges, the statement remarked.
The examination of the ramifications of this sovereign Australian choice will be conducted with the Commonwealth of Australia in the upcoming days, the statement concluded.
Concurrently, France criticized U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday for betraying it and behaving like his predecessor Donald Trump after Paris was sidelined from a historic defense export agreement to supply Australia with submarines, Reuters reported.
The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia declared they would establish a security alliance for the Indo-Pacific that would enable Australia to obtain U.S. nuclear-powered submarines and abandon the $40 billion French-designed submarine contract.
“This harsh, unilateral, and unpredictable decision strongly resembles what Mr. Trump used to enact,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed on Franceinfo radio. “I am furious and disillusioned. Such actions are not what allies do.”
In 2016, Australia had chosen French shipbuilder Naval Group to construct a new submarine fleet valued at $40 billion to replace its more than two-decade-old Collins submarines in what many observers termed the globe’s largest single arms export agreement.
Just a fortnight ago, the Australian Defense and Foreign Ministers had reaffirmed the contract to France, and French President Emmanuel Macron praised decades of future collaboration while hosting Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in June.
“It’s a stab in the back. We fostered a bond of trust with Australia, and that trust has now been violated,” Le Drian stated.
The French Embassy in Washington announced it was cancelling a gala gathering related to French-U.S. relations last Friday following the day’s developments.
France’s relationship with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also deteriorated due to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.
Washington’s maneuvers in Australia are likely to further intensify transatlantic tensions, political analysts suggested. The European Union was scheduled to unveil its Indo-Pacific strategy on Thursday, with Paris poised to assume the EU presidency.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday asserted that France was a “critical partner” in the Indo-Pacific area and that Washington would persist in collaborating with Paris, comments that seemed aimed at easing French discontent.
Morrison expressed that Australia anticipates continuing to cooperate “closely and positively” with France, adding: “France is a significant friend and ally to Australia and the Indo-Pacific.”
This marks the second obstacle to French defense exports in three months after Switzerland rejected Dassault’s (AVMD.PA) Rafale in favor of U.S.-made Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) F-35 fighters.
Analysts indicated that the forfeiture of the much larger submarine deal is a considerable setback for France, whose adept arms sales machinery had gone all out to secure the submarine agreement from potential victor Japan under then Defense Minister Le Drian in 2016. Germany had also been in the mix.
