Minister for European and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Yves Le Drian … Photo: Wikipedia.org.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian & nbsp; made a statement on the television channel France 2, in which he described false reports that the United States was discussing the creation of an alliance with France & nbsp; AUKUS and the submarine agreement before the Australian authorities announced the termination of the contract.
We are talking about creating & nbsp; AUKUS's new defense and security partnership between the US, the UK and Australia. Australia then withdrew from its contract with & nbsp; the French company Naval Group for the production of 12 attack submarines of the Barracuda class worth 56 billion euros. Subsequently, French ambassadors to the United States and Australia were recalled to Paris for consultations, and the French Foreign Ministry described the incident as “ duplication, contempt and lies.“
Le & nbsp; Le Drian also noted that NATO had already launched a debate on the situation at the request of French President Emmanuel Macron. According to him, work on a new strategic concept of the alliance will take place at the next NATO summit in Madrid.
“Obviously, what happened will be relevant to its definition,” the minister said. He also noted that due to the situation with Australia, there was now a crisis in relations between France and the United States. At the same time, Le Drian does not believe that this could lead to France's withdrawal from NATO.