On Wednesday, Naval Group CEO Pierre Eric Pommellet told France’s Le Figaro newspaper that Australia would be receiving a bill for the submarine contract which was cancelled last week. Pommellet said a “detailed and calculated proposal” would be sent to Canberra in the next “few weeks” which sets out the …
Read More »Joker BoJo plays for laughs but mocking France risks reprisals from President Macron that could seriously hurt Global Britain
Australia’s decision to renege on a €56 billion contract it had agreed with France for the supply of eight diesel electric submarines might have caused some upset in the Elysee Palace but British joker and sometime PM Boris Johnson’s mocking ‘donnez-moi un break’ will have French President Emmanuel Macron reaching …
Read More »France to return ambassador to Washington after Biden’s call to Macron in wake of major military contract snub
Biden phoned Macron on Wednesday to discuss last week’s announcement of a new security pact between the US, UK and Australia – which resulted in France losing a multi-billion-dollar shipbuilding contract, among other things – and “agreed that the situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters …
Read More »Give ‘moi’ a break: UK PM Johnson tells France to get over their AUKUS deal grievances
Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, Johnson burst into Franglais to make a stab at the French when asked about the ongoing dispute over the new AUKUS alliance: “I just think it’s time for some of our dearest friends around the world to prenez un grip [get a grip] about all …
Read More »Furious France sinking Euro deal with Australia due to AUKUS shows exactly why the EU will never work
The French have every right to feel slighted by the AUKUS deal between the US, the UK and the Australians. How would you feel if you’d had around £70 billion worth of contracts to build submarines taken from under your nose? And what’s worse, you’d had them stolen by people …
Read More »‘No closer ally,’ Biden says of far-off Australia amid row with oldest ally France over anti-China AUKUS pact
The “United States has no closer, more reliable ally than Australia,” Biden told Morrison on Tuesday in a brief photo-op for the media before they went into a bilateral meeting. Just last week, announcing the AUKUS alliance between Washington, London and Canberra, Biden appeared to forget Morrison’s name and called …
Read More »‘Wake-up call’ for EU: Berlin voices support for France in AUKUS submarine row with US & Australia
France invoked EU solidarity after Australia cancelled a $40 billion contract for French-made attack submarines in favor of US-made nuclear-powered boats. The deal, which was announced as part of the so-called AUKUS cooperation mechanism also involving Britain, blindsided France. German European Affairs Minister Michael Roth called the ongoing row a …
Read More »France unwilling to set aside submarine dispute with Australia, minister says, stressing it’s also an EU matter
Speaking on Tuesday, France’s European affairs minister Clement Beaune said that his European counterparts supported France in its dispute with Australia after the latter cancelled a $40 billion submarine contract with Paris in favor of a new deal with the UK and US. He welcomed the EU support, noting that …
Read More »‘Not acceptable’: EU chief criticizes treatment of France by AUKUS nuclear sub pact
Speaking to CNN, von der Leyen said that the three countries have “a lot of open questions that have to be answered,” days after the military initiative was unveiled. Criticism has mounted over the decision by the trio to agree a security pact under which Canberra will be provided with …
Read More »AUKUS fallout: France pledges to ‘defend truly multilateral international order’ with India amid diplomatic row with Australia-US
France and India will “work on a joint program of concrete actions to defend a truly multilateral international order,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said in a statement on Saturday. Released by the French foreign ministry, it also said the two had discussed …
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