Category Archives: Aukus

Furious French defence contractor to seek compensation over Aukus deal

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Head of Naval Group attacks Australia’s ‘political’ decision to cancel €56bn contract with his firm

Australia has signed up to an empty promise by agreeing to a US nuclear powered submarine deal for which there is no clear delivery date or technology transfer agreement, the furious head of the French defence contractor Naval Group has warned.

Pierre Eric Pommellet also said his firm will be seeking compensation for Australia’s cancellation of a €56bn (£48bn) contract for 12 new Attack-class submarines, which he described as a purely political decision which came without warning.

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Experts say China’s low-level cyberwar is becoming severe threat

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Activity more overt and reckless despite US, British and other political efforts to bring it to a halt

Chinese state-sponsored hacking is at record levels, western experts say, accusing Beijing of engaging in a form of low-level warfare that is escalating despite US, British and other political efforts to bring it to a halt.

There are accusations too that the clandestine activity, which has a focus on stealing intellectual property, has become more overt and more reckless, although Beijing consistently denies sponsoring hacking and accuses critics of hypocrisy.

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Macron yet to take call from Australia’s Scott Morrison over sub snub

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Australian PM hopes to speak with French president ‘when the time is right and the opportunity presents’

French president Emmanuel Macron has not yet taken a call from Scott Morrison amid continuing fury in Paris over the torn up submarine deal.

Morrison, the Australian prime minister, said he hoped to speak with Macron “when the time is right and when the opportunity presents” but he understood “the hurt and the disappointment” felt by France over the cancellation of the $90bn arrangement.

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Is China stepping up its ambition to supplant US as top superpower?

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Analysis: Joe Biden has cleared the decks to focus on China. But how imminent is the danger?

It may have been an inelegantly, even ineptly, executed pivot, gratuitously alienating key allies, but by leaving Afghanistan and forming the Australian, US and UK security pact in the Indo-Pacific, Joe Biden has at least cleared the decks to focus on his great foreign policy challenge – the systemic rivalry with China.

Yet the concern now is how quickly this rivalry could escalate, especially in Taiwan. The linchpin of the US alliance system in south-east Asia, Taiwan is the biggest island in the “first island chain”, the group of islands that keeps China blocked in. It is China’s next target, and as the former British prime minister Theresa May pointed out, no one quite knows if the west is prepared to fight to save Taiwan or whether the new tripartite pact in some way places a new obligation on the UK to come to the country’s defence.

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Biden recognises there could have been ‘more discussion’ with France says Psaki – video

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During the White House daily press briefing on Wednesday, press secretary Jen Psaki was asked for additional details about Joe Biden’s call with the French president Emmanuel Macron today, after which it was announced the French ambassador would return to Washington.

Psaki noted that the phone call between the two leaders lasted about 30 minutes, and she said it was a “friendly” conversation. “[Biden] acknowledged that there could have been more discussion,” she said.

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‘Donnez-moi un break’: Johnson says France needs to ‘get a grip’ over submarine deal – video

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Boris Johnson has said French officials need to 'prenez un grip' amid continued anger at the US and UK's recent submarine deal with Australia. France recalled its ambassadors from both countries in response to Sunday's announcement. On Wednesday the prime minister said: 'It is not exclusive. It is not trying to shoulder anybody out. It is not adversarial towards China, for instance. It is there to intensify links and friendship between three countries'

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Dan Tehan says EU free-trade negotiations are ‘business as usual’ despite tensions with France

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Trade minister says Australia has a strong relationship with Europe and it is sometimes necessary to have ‘difficult conversations’

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The federal trade minister, Dan Tehan, insists Australia’s free-trade agreement negotiations with the European Union are “business as usual”, despite growing unease over Australia’s treatment of France during the finalisation of the Aukus deal.

Tehan’s trip to Europe early next month will now be partly spent trying to smooth over tensions with the European Commission which has asked for a “please explain” over Australia’s dealings with its key member state France, in both cancelling a $90bn submarine contract, and entering into a strategic Indo-Pacific agreement which excludes Europe.

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France tries to delay EU-Australia trade deal amid Aukus fallout

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France seeks EU support to delay deal as punishment after Australia cancelled £48bn submarine contract

France is seeking to enlist European Union support to delay a planned EU-Australia trade deal, as part of a plan to punish Australia for what it regards as serial deceit and subterfuge by Canberra before it cancelled the contract for 12 attack-class French submarines.

The A$90bn (£48bn) submarine contract was the centrepiece of French-Australian cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, but the Australians have instead opted to form a US-UK-Australia pact dubbed Aukus, and build eight nuclear-powered submarines likely to be delivered between 2030 and 2040.

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‘We felt fooled’: France still furious after Australia scraps $90bn submarine deal

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‘Maybe we’re not friends,’ recalled ambassador says, claiming Scott Morrison ‘kept us in the dark intentionally’

French anger at the Morrison government’s decision to scrap its $90bn submarine program with France continues to boil over, with the country’s recalled ambassador saying it felt “fooled” by the announcement.

Jean-Pierre Thebault was ordered back to Paris in the wake of the Aukus announcement, which will see Australia enter into a strategic “forever partnership” with the US and the UK.

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UK-France defence summit cancelled in Aukus row

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Paris furious at scrapping of Australian submarine contract and new three-way technology pact

A Franco-British defence ministers’ summit due to take place this week has been cancelled as Paris steps up its protests over the loss of a £48bn submarine contract with Australia and its secret replacement with nuclear technology from the UK and US.

Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, and his opposite number, Florence Parly, had been due to hold a bilateral meeting in London and address the two-day Franco-British Council, now the latest casualties of the diplomatic row.

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‘We thought we were mates’: French ambassador laments subterfuge en route to Sydney airport

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Jean-Pierre Thebault was angry about Aukus as he left Australia on Saturday night, saying: ‘It’s like in a couple, you know, when you commit … you don’t run away’

The French ambassador to Australia was in a car heading to Sydney airport for an urgent flight back home when he revealed he was “sad like any decent person would be”.

Jean-Pierre Thebault left Australia on Saturday night after Australia’s $90bn submarine deal with France was scrapped late last week, causing an unexpected rupture in the relationship between two friendly countries.

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Baptism of fire as Liz Truss heads to US amid submarine row

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As France accuses the US and Australia of ‘lies and duplicity’, new UK foreign secretary faces major diplomatic incident on her first official overseas trip

Liz Truss is heading for a furious diplomatic confrontation with France on her first trip abroad as foreign secretary, as anger mounts in Paris over the cancellation of a £48bn nuclear submarine contract.

Truss, whose appointment was one of the biggest surprises of Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle last Wednesday, will arrive in the US on Sunday before a four-day visit to New York and Washington during which she is aiming to promote the prime minister’s vision of “global Britain” to international leaders.

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Aukus pact could allow New Zealand to deepen relations with Europe and Pacific | Pete McKenzie

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As country’s traditional allies take a more confrontational approach to China, it could offset Anglosphere divide with new partnerships

During the announcement that America, the United Kingdom and Australia had formed a new Aukus defence pact – inaugurated with the sale of American nuclear-powered submarines to Australia – Australian prime minister Scott Morrison lauded it as a “forever partnership for a new time between the oldest and most trusted of friends”.

That phrasing was notable given that the deal excluded New Zealand, which has historically been so close with Australia that the Australian constitution contemplates complete integration of the two countries. Remarkably, New Zealand’s government apparently only learned about the Aukus deal when it began to be reported in the media on Wednesday.

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French recall of ambassadors shows extent of anger over Aukus rift

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Analysis: ties between Paris and Washington in worse state than at time of Iraq war after Australia’s cancellation of submarine deal

The recall of the French ambassadors to Australia and the US – without precedent in two centuries of diplomacy between Paris and Washington – has plunged relations to depths unknown for decades.

Rifts over the Iraq war or Nato pale into insignificance. True, the French recalled their ambassador to Rome a couple of years ago, irked by the insults sent their way by the upstart Five Star leader Luigi di Maio, but that was a little warning to populists to stop encouraging the disruption of the yellow vest protests.

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Trudeau lambasted over exclusion from US-led military alliance as election nears

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Canada already shares intelligence with Australia, the UK, the US and New Zealand but was not included in Aukus pact

Justin Trudeau is facing harsh criticism from political rivals after Canada was excluded from a new international defence pact, days before the country votes in a federal election.

Australia, the United Kingdom and the United State on Wednesday announced a new intelligence sharing agreement meant to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

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China vows to resist ‘interference’ as Taiwan welcomes support from Aukus allies

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Australia and US pledge stronger ties, EU calls for trade deal and Johnson refuses to rule out getting involved in a conflict involving the island

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has vowed to resist “interference from external forces” as Taiwan welcomed support from major allies after a US-Australia ministerial forum pledged stronger ties with the island and the European parliament called for a bilateral trade deal.

Speaking at a meeting of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tajikistan via video link, Xi urged members of the grouping to “absolutely resist external forces to interfere [in] countries in our region at any excuse, and hold the future of our countries’ development and progress firmly in our own hands”.

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