French FM says US-UK-Australia defence deal was a ‘stab in the back’, as he draws parallels between Biden and Trump. U.S. President Joe Biden is being accused by France over a 50 billion euro deal to supply 12 submarines to Australia.
France has called out US President Joe Biden of acting like his predecessor Donald Trump after Paris was pushed aside from a lucrative defence deal that it had signed with Australia.
Foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s comments on Thursday came a day after the United States, United Kingdom and Australia announced they would establish a security partnership for the Indo-Pacific that will help Australia acquire US nuclear-powered submarines.
Rumors only began to circulate Wednesday afternoon about a possible economic disaster: the loss by Naval Group, the French naval shipbuilding champion, of a 31-billion-euro contract, the Future Submarine Program (FSP) concluded in 2016 with Australia for the supply of twelve latest-generation submarines, called Attak
After various exchange rate adjustments and cost overruns over the past five years, this market was worth more than 50 billion euros. It was won in a hard-fought battle against the German competitor TKMS. These vessels are a diesel-electric propulsion version of the latest model of the French Barracuda series nuclear attack submarine (NAS), the first of which, the Suffren, is due to enter active service in the next few months. It will be followed by five other vessels. The Australian contract had represented in 2016 an undeniable achievement for French arms, and a major success for François Hollande and his Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian.
