Paris threatened with repercussions for NATO after US-UK-Australia deal
France began to openly threaten the United States, Great Britain and Australia with consequences for the loss multibillion-dollar naval contract. This is reported by the French media, referring to the words of the local Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
The minister noted that the termination of the agreed agreement and the conclusion of a trilateral defense agreement between Washington, London and Canberra - AUKUS, will affect NATO.
On the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron, discussions began on a new strategic concept for the Alliance. Work on it will be carried out during the future NATO summit in Madrid. Obviously what happened will affect this document.
- pointed out the French minister.
If earlier the consequences for NATO threatened only the deputies of the French parliament and presidential candidates of the country, which could be compared with the pre-election rhetoric, the words of the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs speak of the gravity of the situation. Paris really considers itself deceived by its "allies" and is not going to leave everything as it is. These are not disagreements between partners, but a real painful crisis in the relationship.
At the same time, it became known that Australia was in a hurry to re-equip its Navy. She was going to explore the possibility of renting existing or buying new nuclear submarines from the United States or Great Britain in the near future. This was announced on September 19 in an interview with the Australian television channel Sky News Australia by Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton.
According to him, Canberra wants to start refitting, without waiting for the launch of the first multipurpose nuclear submarine, agreed upon when signing AUKUS. 12 nuclear submarines are to be manufactured in Adelaide. The first submarine is due to be built in 2036. The minister has already held talks with his American counterpart and is going to talk with his British counterpart.
Dutton denied reports that Australia deliberately misled France about an agreement between the two countries to build 12 Shortfin Barracuda Block 1A diesel-electric submarines (a non-nuclear version of the Barracuda project multipurpose nuclear submarines), concluded by the two countries in 2016. He stressed that the Australians honestly informed the French about the problems encountered in the implementation of the contract.
Among other things, we openly said that we need to act in our national interests, taking into account the changing situation in the Indo-Pacific region. Suggestions that the Australian government did not express such concerns is simply challenging, frankly, everything we have talked about for a long time.
- summed up the Australian.
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