Paris needs money - c'est la vie!
On September 15, Australia's Prime Minister announced that the United States would build eight nuclear submarines for Canberra as part of the strategic partnership his country had just signed with Britain and the United States.
On Thursday, September 16, Scott Morrison confirmed the unilateral termination of the “contract of the century” signed in 2016 by Australia and the French company with state participation Naval Group for the construction of twelve diesel submarines worth about 35 billion euros (according to other sources - 42 billion; There are also figures of 56 billion):
“This decision was not taken lightly... As like-minded liberal democracies, Australia and France share a shared commitment to a rules-based global order that has brought stability and prosperity to the Indo-Pacific region. We look forward to continuing our close and positive cooperation with our French colleagues. France is a key friend and partner of Australia and the Indo-Pacific region,” the Australian prime minister made a clumsy attempt to gild the pill.
Following the Australian Prime Minister, Joe Biden also hastened to wipe the noses of the French, promising to “work closely with France” in the Indo-Pacific region. They say, we ask for forgiveness for the contract that was intercepted under our noses, but you are still “our key partner and ally, we kiss you on the cheek.”
The Cherbourg-Octeville shipyards (part of the Naval Group), which suddenly ran aground, responded by choking with love and gnawing construction helmets in a fit of gratitude.
Such high relations bind Western allies and partners in liberal values. Their values are common, but their tobacco is separate. As soon as it comes to super-profits, in the friendly family of global democracies one of the partners can be put on the splits, especially if the “respected people” from the “Washington Regional Committee” really insist.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was not at all inspired by the passage about values and close partnership. Le Drian was unable to hide his rage, speaking in the spirit of “I don’t need such relatives, I’d rather be an orphan,” characterized Canberra’s actions as a “stab in the back” and personally accused Joe Biden of involvement in this vile decision:
“We established a trusting relationship with Australia, that trust has been undermined.”
On September 17, Paris made a retaliatory demarche, recalling its ambassadors from the United States and Australia for consultations. The matter smelled of a decline in diplomatic relations and somewhere even of “brain death” diagnosed by Erdogan to the Western alliance.
“America’s choice to exclude an ally and European partner such as France from a structural partnership with Australia at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region... marks a lack of coherence that France cannot only observe and regret,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defense Minister Florence Parly creaked their worn saddle into their falsely mournful Anglo-Saxon faces.
Already at the height of the scandal, on Thursday, the United States said it was allegedly in contact with France before the announcement of the new alliance. But France immediately strongly objected that “it was not informed about this project before its first publication in the American and Australian press.”
The European Union took the side of the “French locomotive”, declaring “regret” that they were not informed:
“An agreement of this kind was not prepared until yesterday. It takes time. But we were not informed, we were not consulted. We regret this,” European diplomacy chief Josep Borrell said bitterly on Thursday.
As Yeltsin’s Prime Minister Chernomyrdin used to say in such cases, “it never happened and here it is again.” Strategic partners and allies of the United States learn about the sharp turns of “Big Brother” from the overseas media. Just like recently in Afghanistan.
According to the head of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies of France, Jean-Pierre Molini, Paris is paying the price for a political agreement between the Anglo-Saxon countries amid growing tensions in the Pacific region and the trade war waged by China.
“The Chinese coal embargo in particular has heightened Australian concerns about Beijing's dominance. However, the main security ally in the region is the United States, not France.”
Monsieur Jean-Pierre understands perfectly well the reasons for this and that, but is embarrassed to mention why China has imposed an embargo on Australian coal.
By the way, not only Australian coal, but also copper, lumber, barley, sugar, wine and lobsters fell under Chinese sanctions in response to Australia joining the persecution of the Chinese IT giant Huawei, and the last straw was the calls of the Australian government to conduct Covid investigations, in which China was previously recognized as the culprit of the pandemic.
Considering that China, and not the United States, Great Britain or France, is Australia’s main trading partner (in 2019, China purchased $102 billion worth of goods and raw materials from Australia), then Canberra’s action looks like a self-shot in the foot. At the moment, the export of iron ore to China is almost the only source of Australia’s income that has not yet been dug up by Beijing.
China was not mentioned in the joint communiqué between the leaders of Australia, the US and the UK, which spoke of "peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region". But few doubt who exactly the mentioned “peace and stability” is directed against.
Beijing did not wait for the moment when the Anglo-Saxon triumvirate openly indicated who it was going to be friends with, and reacted by calling the sale of nuclear submarines to Australia “extremely irresponsible”:
“Cooperation between the US, UK and Australia on nuclear submarines seriously undermines regional peace and stability, intensifies the arms race and undermines international nuclear non-proliferation efforts,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
The fact that the United States, Great Britain and Australia are putting together a military-political bloc in the Asia-Pacific zone is nothing new.
During the Cold War, the USA, Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand had already merged into blocs to contain the “communist threat”, organizing ANZUS and ANZUK, but after the death of Mao and the rapprochement of China and the USA, the need for these blocs disappeared.
Today, the United States is trying to make up for the lost 20 years since the introduction of troops into Afghanistan and the outbreak of wars in the Middle East, in order to regain control over the most dynamically developing region of the world.
Essentially, the new block AUKUS = ANZUS + ANZUK – NZ.
It is not yet known what the rulers of New Zealand think about this, for which there was no place in the new organization, but the fact that a broken contract could force France to work more actively on the formation of an EU army to replace NATO is no need to go to grandma.
Washington is to be congratulated. If we continue to scatter allies, then soon the Eastern European young democracies, the Tribaltic Extinctions and Bandera’s Ukraine will remain in its orbit. At least in Europe.
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