Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Still smarting under the hugely embarrassing ‘snub’ it received from its closest allies last week—when Canberra canceled a lucrative multi-billion dollar submarine deal with France, and Australia, the UK, and the US created a new defense alliance, AUKUS, for the Indo-Pacific security, leaving out Paris—France on Monday canceled a scheduled meeting between its Defence Minister Florence Parly and her British counterpart Ben Wallace set for this week.
Calling it a betrayal and “unacceptable behavior between allies”, French President Immanuel Macron had recalled his country’s ambassadors from Washington and Canberra for what his Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned as a “stab in the back.”
“There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt,” Le Drian told France 2 television on Saturday last week. He also dismissed Britain as the “third wheel” in the US-Anglo-Australian partnership.
The fresh French step to cancel the two foreign ministers’ meeting came after the joint move by the US, Australia, and the UK sparked a full-blown diplomatic crisis with Paris. It was preceded by Australia scrapping a mega-deal with France to buy conventionally-powered submarines and, instead, deciding to buy nuclear-powered submarines from the US, keeping France in the dark and effectively side-lining Paris.
The “meeting planned for this week in London… will not take place due to the French canceling”, media reported on Monday.
Australia’s decision to junk the contract with France and replace it with a new one with the US sparked unprecedented outrage in Paris last week as France, seething with anger, was unable to stomach the cancellation of the mega-deal.
However, London tried to cool down diplomatic temperatures. “The UK remains in conversation with our French counterparts about the meetings. We continue to have a strong and close-working defense partnership with France, as they remain trusted allies of the UK and we continue to work with France in many equipment and operational domains.”
The French contract to supply conventional submarines to Australia was worth Aus$50 billion ($36.5 billion, 31 billion euros) when signed in 2016. Due to the delays and cost escalation, it has now reportedly soared to nearly $66 billion.
Apparently, Australia’s decision to scrap the French deal—called “contract of the century”–was based on the rapid deterioration of the geopolitical situation, particularly in the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific region, and Beijing’s running fracas with Canberra on various issues.
These, and the rethink in the West about China’s post-Covid-19 expansionist designs, forced Australia to quickly go for the American nuclear-powered submarines.
France seems particularly peeved that America chose Britain, no longer a member of the European Union, and Australia, as new partners for the Indo-Pacific security. Paris thought it should have been the ideal choice for this new alliance as France was the only European power to have endorsed the idea of the Indo-Pacific security that the US and Australia now support.
In April 2019, for example, Paris took on the Chinese in the strategic Taiwan Strait. France has stood up for the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. So, there is no difference in the objectives of France, the US, and Australia in the Pacific region.
Even if Australia needed the nuclear submarines, France had a nuclear variant of the vessel Canberra wanted to replace the conventionally-powered ones.
But the new geostrategic architecture is based not on emotional bonds but on the hard rock of realpolitik. France will have to accept the new scenario.