The United States on Thursday said it had given France and Australia only time to reach an agreement on the supply of nuclear submarines.
France is trying to strike a multibillion-dollar deal with Australia, and French officials say Mr Biden’s new deal with the Australian and British leaders at the White House on Wednesday is “disgusting”.
On Wednesday morning, Biden, a national security adviser to US President George W. Bush, announced his intention to reach an agreement with Australia, a senior French diplomat in Washington. He asked for anonymity to discuss diplomatic talks.
France’s anger is reminiscent of the Iraq war and the 2003 Iraq war between Paris and Washington, and the language barrier since then. “This is not going to happen between the partners,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the agreement a “one-sided, brutal, unpredictable decision.”
France’s withdrawal from the new British-Australian-US military alliance reinforces a long-running dispute between France and NATO. President Emmanuel Macron has said that France intends to pursue “strategic autonomy” from the United States.
But even as US officials rushed to respond to France’s outrage, they rejected the idea of a split. White House press secretary Jane Pisaki told reporters that the United States had informed France before the president’s announcement, but was not obliged to include the country in its preparations with Australia and the United Kingdom.
“This is not the only US involvement in the world or an international partnership,” he said. “France is a member of the G-7,” he said.
Lack of consultation – and last-minute revelation – angered French officials in Washington, D.C. J. Trump.
Asked what he thought of Mr. Trump compared to Mr. Trump, Ms. Pisaki was shot: “The president doesn’t care much.”
In honor of the French navy during the American War of 1781, during the American Revolution, the “240 Clans of War” was commemorated.
French Ambassador to the United States Philip en Tine said on Thursday that he had learned from news reports about the deal, and that Mr Biden’s national security adviser, Jack Sullivan, had called.
Outraged by Mr. Tin and Mr. Drian, France concluded in 2016 that Australia had its own agreement for conventional, unmanned submarines. That $ 66 billion deal is now over, but there seems to be a serious legal dispute over the deal.
Commenting on Australia’s decision, Mr Le Drian described Australia’s rejection of a “strategic partnership agreement that includes” multiple technology transitions and a 50-year contract “as” a knife in the back “.
French diplomats in Washington have repeatedly accused top US officials of concealing information about the US deal, despite repeated attempts by French officials.
In an interview on Thursday, one of France’s most experienced diplomats, Athena, admitted that there had been discussions about rising French submarine prices for Australia: although France is not a nuclear power, it has its own nuclear submarines.
At the beginning of the summer, the French government refused to sign documents for the next phase of the agreement – probably because of price differences. But Mr Atene said the deal was not just about defense.
“We have assets in this region,” he said, noting that he has carried out missions in the Pacific and has strategic plans to increase France’s presence. We take it very seriously. “It’s not just a contract,” he added. He called it “an important part of our overall Indo-Pacific strategy.”
Zolan Cano-Yangs And David E. Singer Contributed.