Damascus-SANA
The crisis is escalating between the United States, Australia and Britain on the one hand, and France on the other hand, against the backdrop of Australia canceling a huge contract to purchase submarines from France and replacing them with American nuclear submarines after concluding a tripartite security agreement that includes Washington, London and Canberra.
Yesterday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France 2 television, commenting on Australia's decision, saying, "There is lies, mistrust and a real crisis with Australia. We have not received a written request from it to cancel, and this is a violation of the contract," describing what happened as "a stab in the back."
Le Drian also accused Britain of opportunism in the submarine issue, pointing out that the submarine deal crisis will have repercussions on the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and NATO.
Commenting on London's role in the security agreement, the French minister said lightly: Britain is nothing but an extra party in all of this equation, indicating that NATO will have to take what happened into consideration when reconsidering its strategy during an upcoming summit in Madrid next year.
Britain, for its part, said in the words of British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, that the new security agreement with Australia and the United States demonstrates London's willingness to be tough in defending its interests, and that "it is about more than foreign policy in theory, but it achieves an achievement for people in Britain and abroad by establishing a partnership With like-minded countries to build alliances based on shared values and common interests,” as she put it.
Australia, in turn, rejected its Prime Minister Scott Morrison today, the French accusations against his country of "lying", noting that he raised his country's concerns about the deal months ago.
The French press agency quoted Morrison as saying that the French government knew that Canberra had deep reservations about the issue of French submarines before the purchase agreement was terminated last week, adding in an indirect response to the French accusations that the French had all the conditions to know Canberra's deep reservations about the capabilities of the class submarines. Attack because it does not meet Australia's strategic interests.
Morrison also indicated that he understands France's disappointment, but he said: "I have no regrets about the decision to favor Australia's national interest and I will never regret it." While Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton considered that his government was "frank, clear and honest" with France about its hesitation about the deal, while it expressed The Australian Foreign Ministry regrets the French decision to recall its ambassador to Canberra.
For his part, the head of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Power, played down the risks posed by the submarine issue, saying that he "ruled out that this issue would affect military cooperation between NATO countries."
In international situations, China described the new security agreement between America, Britain and Australia as a "totally irresponsible" threat to regional stability, questioning Australia's commitment to non-proliferation and warning Western allies that they are putting themselves at risk.
Australia had informed France that it would cancel its contract with DCNS, which is mostly owned by the government, to build 12 of the largest conventional submarines in the world. The value of the contract was 50 billion Australian dollars, equivalent to 36.5 billion US dollars, when it was signed in 2016. Australia spent A$2.4 billion has been on the project since the French won the contract, but its prime minister made it clear that US nuclear submarine technology was not an option for his country when the French deal was struck.
Mohammed Jassim