Washington, Sept 16 (AFP/APP):France and the United States had high-level talks ahead of the announcement of Washington’s new alliance with Australia and Britain, with Canberra to acquire nuclear submarines, a White House official said Thursday.
“Senior administration officials have been in touch with their French counterparts to discuss AUKUS, including before the announcement,” the official told AFP after the agreement angered France, which had a deal of its own to supply conventional submarines to Australia.
“I will leave it to our Australian partners to describe why they sought this new technology… we cooperate closely with France on shared priorities in the Indo-Pacific and will continue to do so,” the official added.
The AUKUS agreement scuppered Australia’s multi-billion-dollar 2016 deal to buy submarines from France, which had been personally backed by President Emmanuel Macron.
France’s foreign minister branded the new agreement “a stab in the back.”
“I’m very angry today, and bitter… This is not something allies do to each other,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
China condemned the deal as an “extremely irresponsible” threat to stability in the region.
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