France Recalling Ambassador to U.S. After Biden Torpedoes Its Australian Submarine Deal
“It was a stab in the back. We had established a relationship of trust with Australia. This trust has been betrayed.”
Do you remember when Biden was supposed to heal our relationships with allies in Europe in the wake of the man-handing received by mean Tweeter President Donald Trump?
France is recalling its ambassador to the U.S:
In a statement, the French foreign minister said the decision was made by French President Emmanuel Macron.
“At the request of the President of the Republic, I have decided to immediately recall our two ambassadors to the United States and Australia to Paris for consultations,” Jean-Yves Le Drian, the foreign minister said. “This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcements made on 15 September by Australia and the United States.”
Earlier, French diplomats in Washington had abruptly canceled a gala at their embassy to celebrate ties between the two countries due to anger at the Biden administration’s role in torpedoing a $90 billion submarine deal with Australia.
The event was supposed to commemorate the 240th anniversary of the Battle of the Capes, when the French Navy fought the Royal Navy of Britain during the Revolutionary War.
But it will not now go ahead on Friday, an official told the AFP news agency, saying the occasion ‘has been made more sober.’
A portion of the event was to have been held on a French frigate in Baltimore.
And it means France’s top naval officer will return home early.
The decision reflects French anger at the announcement that the U.S. and the U.K. would help Australia acquire a nuclear-powered submarine fleet, upending an existing contract with France for 12 diesel vessels.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the deal as a ‘unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision’ like those of former President Trump.
Legal Insurrection readers will not be surprised to learn some of our questionably competent senior administration officials were involved.
“It was a stab in the back. We had established a relationship of trust with Australia. This trust has been betrayed,” France minister of foreign affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian told radio station Franceinfo Thursday morning.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Thursday that he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken to their French counterparts about the new security pact ahead of its unveiling.
“I’ll leave it to our Australian partners to describe why they sought this new technology. But as the president said and I want to emphasize again, we cooperate incredibly closely with France on many shared priorities in the Indo-Pacific but also around the world,” Blinken said.
There is an upside to this development. At least China appears unhappy with this arrangement.
China on Thursday denounced a new Indo-Pacific security alliance between the United States, Britain and Australia, saying such partnerships should not target third countries and warning of an intensified arms race in the region.
Under the arrangement, dubbed AUKUS, the United States and Britain will provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines.
…Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the three countries were “severely damaging regional peace and stability, intensifying an arms race, and damaging international nuclear non-proliferation efforts”.
“China always believes that any regional mechanism should conform to the trend of peace and development of the times and help enhance mutual trust and cooperation… It should not target any third party or undermine its interests,” he told a regular briefing in Beijing.
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Comments
Trump, it’s always about Trump
Are they steal upset that President Trump expected them to pay their fair share?
I mean, why bring in Trump?
Macron: “The US is definitely back. Welcome to the club.”
Idiot.
He was friendly to Trump to, it is called diplomacy.
When Macron met Biden at the G-7 conference he pretended not to notice Biden was suffering from dementia. He thought that would put Biden in his debt. Biden would owe him. But he got screwed and now he’s angry.
All I have to say is, “ha ha.” That’s what you get for putting your trust in a dementia patient.
Guestimate, the sub deal lasts just long enough for Australia to spend a lot of money, but not long enough to get actual working subs.
Why would the Australians trust us to follow through?
I doubt China is really unhappy. They probably would have had working French subs in a short time. How long will it take to get these. Plus you can always come up with diesel, how can we screw them later on uranium.
No fuel. No sub.
I believe the Australians are in possession of large amounts of uranium actually. I don’t know if they currently have the capability to process it, but I find it really hard to believe there are no nuclear scientists in Australia.
Just sayin’
Australia exports uranium. Or at least used to; if they stopped it was because of Green pressure, not because they ran out. And they’ve got plenty of nuclear scientists.
Wow, our prestige on the world stage has REALLY been restored, now, hasn’t it?
Oh mon dieu! France recalls ambassadors to US and Australia.
What’s next, a declaration of war?
Will America and Australia lose their source of over priced wine and smelly fromage?
Glad you don’t think we need to be on good terms with a major economy, with a very long and strong cultural connection with us, that has good technology, and very strong influence in one of the most powerful economic blocks in the world and with a lot of people we spent 20 years destroying our credibility with.
Look at it this way. The “adults” in the Biden administration managed to piss off a long-term (and by that, I mean continuously since something like 1770) EU ally enough to make them break diplomatic relations. Think what you will about their valor, their tendency to roll over and collaborate, and their reticence to accompany us on windmill-tilts such as the one into Iraq… by and large we’ve had each other’s backs for well over two centuries. And Biden horned in on someone else’s arms deal like a houndstoothed used car salesman for… what, the money?
I”m continually amazed at how eager Biden is to arm tyrannical Muslims and tyrannical Australians, while he wants to disarm his own citizens completely. Amazing, isn’t it?
Everything you said is true man. Let’s just (I forget the legal term) get that out of the way.
However, the French torpedoed Donald Trump every damned chance they had. They hated our President and assisted in getting us where we are now. You have to admit the Schadenfreude is going to be divine among Trump supporters however, having watched ole Sleepy Joe’s latest fuck up, 🙂
These lunatics are simply incapable of getting anything right. I would throw this out there, This defunct administration has actually already collapsed, and it’s being held together by a handful of policy wonks. The only thing holding it together at this point is CNN and BSDNC.
Anyway Viva la France.
Er *the only other*
Danny,
We have much more in common with both GBR and AUS. A shared language (mostly), culture, literature, the common basis for our legal systems. AUS in fact has been our most consistent ally fighting alongside US forces in every war from WWII right through the war on terror. Even when it was only tangential to their security concerns.
Same with GBR for the most part. The AUS and to a lesser extent NZ are the key to the Pacific; far enough from China to preclude a direct assault but close enough to the shipping lanes to project power and provide reasonably secure basing.
FR is an ally to be sure but FR views itself as an equal world power relying upon soft power of economic and diplomatic ties with the occasional use of the Legion and their quite competent their 1 and their 2 units to enforce their writ.
The FR will always seek to gain advantage and outsize influence at the table when the opportunity is presented. It’s in their nature to do so. Nothing wrong with that but both GBR and AUS have strategic interests with align much more closely to the US and they operate from a place of goodwill v opportunity and don’t seek long-term advantage from a temporary condition.
Finally Nuclear Subs are way more useful. The Pacific Ocean is a big place. Particularly when looking westward into the Indian Ocean. The ability of a submarine to operate independently, without being tethered to a fuel supply in area stretching from the eastern Indian Ocean and throughout the Pacific along the trade routes and creeping along even inshore, undetected, observing and monitoring with the capacity to strike is too valuable to pass up for AUS.
I think the US/UK deal is far superior to the French one but there is such a thing as diplomacy. Especially when the US and UK jumped in at the last minute. This administration is beyond inept. It is rude, obnoxious, and arrogant. No joke!
I seriously doubt that this package was put together in 7 months – it had to have been started during the Trump administration.
What good would a sub do for France? It’s not like they could drop one and run away.
Glad to see bigoted and ignorant jokes are in vogue.
Bigoted perhaps. Ignorant? Historically-informed is way more accurate.
Danny, are you on the CCP payroll or just a freelancer?
Another norm restored?
No mean treats. Just a quick shiv in the back, with no prior warning.
Maybe they should have expected it after how the Afghan bug-out was conducted.
Not that I care.
I remember when France stabbed GWB in the back over invading Iran. Stating they were in it with us right up until they had to do something. Then they announced to the world they were out without first giving the US a heads up. They may have been right to drop out but that doesn’t change the fact they misled and betrayed the US.
And then there was France’s contribution in Afghanistan after 9/11. Where they refused to let the relatively small token force they contributed to the effort engage in offensive operations. Training and firing only when fired upon were their ROE.
France was complicit in undermining the UN sanctions imposed on Saddam’s Iran after the First Gulf War.
And so on and so forth. I could go on and on about France’s duplicity.
First you meant Iraq we didn’t invade Iran unless you count a failed commando raid that was meant to rescue hostages launched by Carter.
Second the French never betrayed us on Iraq they told us to our face it was a horrible idea because it was a horrible idea and refused to take part because they have an IQ in double digits unlike GWB.
Third their troops in Afghanistan did fight but they withdrew them because a forever war without any goals for the purpose of turning Afghans from Islam to Wokism isn’t worth fighting for France or anyone else.
Finally why exactly do I care about Saddam? Did the Kingdom of Heaven George W Bush promised would follow his overthrow show up or is the region and world worst off now because of Bush imperialism?
The world is definitely better off because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power, funding and supporting terrorists all over the world, developing nuclear weapons, tying US troops down indefinitely, and feeding people into plastic shredders. No matter what happened after his overthrow, doing it was the right thing.
Well if China doesn’t like us and the UK selling nuclear subs to Australia then it just be a good thing.
But wasn’t joe supposed to be nice
Or China and Joe are pretending while getting kickbacks for the big guy.
Wait until China sees what comes with those subs. LOL. They are going to love some more Pacific based Tridents.
The (expected) aggressive posture of the CCP has expanded the mission profile for Oz into a full blue water requirement. I can understand the relationship with UK on this, but now… how can they TRUST China Joe and future Dem administrations not selling them out of $$$.
Don’t Australia and New Zealand forbid US nuclear vessels from docking in their ports? So why suddenly switch to buying US-made nuclear subs?
New Zealand forbids any vessel that doesn’t declare itself to be nuclear free from docking.
Australia is not nuclear free – it actually has a tiny nuclear power plant, but is effectively nuclear free otherwise.
So then, if I understand what you’re implying, it’s perfectly OK as long as the vessel self-identifies as non-nuclear?
To be fair the Franco-Australian deal only happened because a left-wing millionaire stabbed the then Australian PM in the back, refused to nominate his preferred non-nuclear option, and so chose the French option despite it being nuclear based with the conventional variant remaining purely theoretical. 5 years on, no work seems to have been done, and conversion issues remain. They’re also expected to be the most expensive submarines to be built in the world, not because they’re particularly good, but because of the choice to build them in Australia. Unlike America the local labour force works incredibly slowly, and incredibly expensively. Estimates suggest a foreign build – Japan, France etc, would save 40%.
My understanding is that the US will be building subs for Australia, not the other way around. Correct?
Isn’t that what makes China mad? Boosting the Naval defense in the region?
The labor force of Australia doesn’t really play a factor if that’s the case.
How utterly incompetent does a President have to be to f*ck up relation with France? I repeat — FRANCE!
Before or after a coalition of the willing protested taking a knee, collateral damage, with housewarming “gifts”? A dysfunctional convergence in progress.
The sad truth is the EU depends on the USA defense largess.
Without the US Army, Navy and Air Force the EU would be blowin’ in the wind.
The French sub deal was useless to the Ozzy’s.
And after Afghanistan, the EU knows that the wind is blowing up their skirts.
Subotai Bahadur
Yeah, they seem kind of ruffled now that you mention it.
And all of this for what? Because Orange Man Bad told them to pay their bills and made mean tweets.
All left wingers are cucks. They have no place in the real world.