Melbourne: Australia “upfront, open, and honest” with France about his worries on the agreement for the French submarine, his defense minister said on Sunday, as a new agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom continued to trigger a multinational diplomatic crisis.
Australia throws away the 2016 agreement with the French Navy group to build a conventional submarine fleet, announce plans for Thursday to build at least eight nuclear-powered with US and British technology in trilateral security partnerships.
This step thrilled France, NATO allies from the United States and Britain, encouraged him to remember the ambassadors of Washington and Canberra, and Riled China, great strength in the Indo-Pacific region.
The agreement has placed Washington in an unprecedented diplomatic crisis with France that analysts said they could conduct Abrival’s damage to France and Europe, throwing also in the front of the union that the Biden government had tried to fight China’s strength.
Paris has called a piercing cancellation behind with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told relations with the United States and Australia in “crisis”.
But Defense Minister Peter Dutton said on Sunday that Australia had raised concerns with France on orders – worth $ 40 billion in 2016 and calculated more expensive today – for several years.
“The suggestion that the concern was not marked by the Australian Government, only opposed, frankly, what was in the public record and of course they said publicly for a long time,” Dutton told Sky News.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday he stated “very significant concern” about the agreement to the French President Emmanuel Macron in June and made Australia clearly “need to make decisions in our national interests”.
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said Australia had told France from the agreement but recognized on Sunday negotiations had become a secret, given the “big sensitivity”.
Dutton and Birmingham refused to reveal the cost of a new pact, even though Dutton said, “It won’t be a cheap project”.