France continues to express their anger towards the Australian Government after abruptly ending the $90 billion submarine contract with Naval Group in favour of the nuclear submarine deal with the UK and US.
When French ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault was recalled back to Paris after the AUKUS deal was made, he criticised Prime Minister Scott Morrison for keeping the French government in the dark about the deal until the last minute.
“You can imagine our anger. We felt fooled,” he said last Monday.
The Ambassador also stated that there was disagreement on whether French President Emmanuel Macron was notified one hour or five hours before Australia announced the landmark security pact with the US and UK.
“When you’re trusted partners, you don’t behave like that,” Ambassador Thebault said.
“It’s a question of principle, it’s a question of dignity and mutual respect in relations between states.”
While the AUKUS agreement was being planned out, France shared its military technology secrets with Australia over the last 18 months. The French diplomat said the submarine deal has been unfairly criticized for budget blowouts and delays.
“I’ve not seen such a smear campaign being run against other programs that are currently run in Australia which are usually over budget and usually over time,” he said.
“Maybe because one is British and one is American.”
Despite being against the recent actions of Australia, Ambassador Thebault insisted that France is not lobbying the European Union to pull out of free-trade negotiations with Australia.
“At this stage, negotiations do continue and it is a strong interest I recognise for Australia to have a free-trade agreement with the EU,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Trade Minister Dan Tehan will be travelling to France for face-to-face meetings with his counterpart.
“We understand the disappointment in France with this decision,” Minister Tehan said.
“We’ve taken a decision which we firmly believe is in our own sovereign national interest.”
Minister Tehan assured that, although tensions are high between the two countries, the 12th round of talks on the Australia-EU free-trade deal would still continue.
“I see no reasons why those discussions won’t continue,” he said.
“My hope is we will be able to finalise this agreement over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said the European country felt blindsided by the Australian Government’s announcement.
“It wasn’t handled in a way that minimised the effect on Australia’s national interest,” she told ABC radio.
“It is not in our national interest to make our friends so angry and so disappointed. The French would be asking with friends like this, who needs enemies?”
With news from AAP.