Australia denies that the defense pact with the United Kingdom and the United States was closed behind France's back

The serious diplomatic crisis caused by the defense agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States with Australia to supply this country with nuclear submarines, to the detriment of a previous pact with France, shows no signs of abating.

Two days after Paris decided to call its ambassadors in Washington and Canberra for consultations, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison enlisted this Sunday to defend the agreement baptized as Aukus, while several members of his Government denied the Paris accusations , who reproaches Australia for having lied.

A spokesman for the French government announced hours later that French President Emmanuel Macron will ask his US counterpart, Joe Biden, for "explanations" in a telephone conversation that they will hold in the "next few days."

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On Saturday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian appeared on the France 2 television news to accuse the United States and Australia of having broken their trust by terminating the agreement with France and closing their alternative tripartite pact with "Double, contempt and lie." The now-canceled commercial commitment - which was concluded in 2016 - involved the purchase of 12 conventional diesel-powered submarines from the French conglomerate Naval for $ 37 billion (€ 31.5 billion). Paris maintains that the Aukus agreement was negotiated in secret and that the French president was totally unaware of it until an hour before it was announced, on September 15. In a radio interview the day after this announcement, Le Drian called it a "backstabbing" to France.

The Australian prime minister responded to these invectives on Sunday in an appearance before the media in which he used a more restrained tone but without making any concessions. The French government, Morrison said, had "all the elements" to know that his country harbored "serious and grave concerns" that the now-annulled agreement to buy French conventional submarines "would not satisfy" its "strategic interests". They made it "very clear" that they would make a decision based on their "strategic national interest." The Australian head of government claimed to have communicated these concerns to President Macron in June.

"Of course it is a matter of great disappointment for the French government, so I understand their disappointment," Morrison clarified. "But at the same time, Australia, like any sovereign nation, must make decisions that respond to our sovereign national defense interests," he explained.

Australia was "frank, open and honest" with France, Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton added, also this Sunday.

"The insinuations that the Australian government had not raised [France] with their concerns challenge, frankly, what is in the public domain and certainly what they have said publicly for a long period of time," Dutton told SkyNews.

Another member of the Australian Executive, Finance Minister Simon Birmingham, reiterated that his country had informed Paris of the agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom, although he acknowledged that the negotiations had been secret given the “enormous sensitivities”.

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Explanations to Biden

Hours after these arguments were broadcast, the spokesman for the French government, Gabriel Attal, announced to the television channel BFM TV the telephone conversation that Macron will have with Biden, without specifying a specific date, although he assured that it will be "in the next few days." The spokesman specified that the French president will ask for "explanations" on the termination of the contract with France, including on the compensation for the French consortium.

The United Kingdom also justified this Sunday the agreement that has not only aroused the anger of France, but also that of China, the power whose growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region aims to counteract the Aukus pact, according to various analysts. The newly appointed British Foreign Minister, Liz Truss, used the same argument as the Australian Prime Minister to defend a defense agreement that defends the "national interests" of her country, she said in an article published this Sunday in the

Sunday Telegraph

newspaper

.

"This is about more than foreign policy in the abstract, but about ... partnering with like-minded countries to build coalitions based on shared values ​​and interests," wrote Truss.

France's discontent is not explained only by the cancellation of the contract. Their exclusion from the strategic alliance of the Aukus pact in the Indo-Pacific region is also an affront to Paris. France preserves in this vast area several overseas territories such as New Caledonia and French Polynesia and, despite its lesser prominence in recent years on the world scene, the French country considers itself an international power. France holds one of five permanent veto seats on the United Nations Security Council.

The European Union has also not looked favorably on the Aukus agreement, which not only harms the interests of one of its most prominent members, but has also jeopardized the transatlantic relationship with the United States and further strained the already compromised ties with the Kingdom. United because of Brexit.

The tripartite agreement also calls into question Europe's own geopolitical ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region, a European diplomat told Reuters.

The leaders of the European Union will discuss this issue and the crisis it has caused at the summit scheduled for October 6 in Slovenia.

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