French parliament calls for withdrawal from NATO
The formation of the trilateral defense alliance - AUKUS, between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States - led to loss France's multibillion-dollar naval contract. The actions of the Western "allies" caused a storm of indignation in Paris.
The French Foreign Ministry recalled the ambassadors from the United States and Australia for consultations, and the French diplomatic mission in Washington canceled a gala reception to mark the 250th anniversary of the victory of their fleet over the British in the US War of Independence (Battle of the Chesapeake). The French considered themselves insulted so much that calls were heard in the National Assembly to withdraw from NATO.
Paris needs to stop indulging in illusions, as well as withdraw from NATO and prohibit the creation of the Alliance's center of excellence in space security, which the United States wants to place in Toulouse (scheduled to open in 2022 - ed.)
- said Jean-Luc Melanchon, MP, presidential candidate of France from the Socialists.
At the same time, many experts believe that despite the outbreak political crisis and the obvious pain of the economic issue, Paris will not withdraw from NATO 7 months before the next presidential elections in France, which are to be held in April 2022.
We remind you that in 2016 the French company DCNS (Naval Group) won the competition for the Australian Navy. The parties signed a contract, according to which Canberra promised to pay Paris about 50 billion Australian dollars ($ 35,8 billion) for 12 diesel-electric Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A submarines (a non-nuclear version of the Barracuda project's multipurpose nuclear submarines), which were supposed to start building in 2023.
In May 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Australians had questions for the French. The Australian Department of Defense has calculated that, taking into account inflation and exchange rates, the creation of submarines no longer fits into the amount stipulated in the contract. It turned out that the construction of 12 submarines will need to spend almost 2 times more money - 90 billion Australian dollars ($ 66 billion).
In March 2021, the French never managed to convince Australians to fork out. After that, Washington jumped in and offered Canberra to acquire nuclear-powered multipurpose submarines. As a result, the services of France were no longer needed by Australia, and the creation of an anti-Chinese alliance was a matter of time.
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