Aukus: France’s ambassador says Australia was ‘childish’ to keep submarine deal secret

Jean-Pierre Thebault, who is returning to Canberra, said France is a security partner of Australia, Britain and the US, and could have been consulted

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the bilateral relationship was bigger than a cancelled submarine contract, given France’s presence in the Indo-Pacific

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France's Ambassador to Australia Jean-Pierre Thebault described Canberra’s surprise cancellation of a major submarine contract in favour of a US deal as a ‘huge mistake’. Photo: AP

Published: 10:30am, 8 Oct 2021Updated: 10:34am, 8 Oct 2021

Australia’s assertion that it could not inform France of its top-secret talks with the United States and Britain to build nuclear submarines is “childish”, the French envoy to Canberra said on Friday.

Australia walked away from a US$40 billion deal with France’s Naval Group to build a fleet of conventional submarines last month and will instead build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with US and British technology after striking a trilateral security partnership with those two countries, dubbed Aukus.

The cancellation angered France, which accused Australia and the United States of stabbing it in the back by holding talks without telling them.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he did raise concerns with Paris over the troubled Naval Group contract, but he could not reveal discussions with the United States until that strategic partnership had been agreed.

But France’s ambassador to Australia, Jean-Pierre Thebault, who Paris recalled last month, said France was a close security partner of the United States, Australia and Britain and could be trusted with such information.

“It’s childish to say that it was impossible to consult France,” Thebault told ABC radio on Friday, adding that US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said the matter could have been handled better.