Aukus fallout: French submarine builder to send Australia invoice for scrapped ‘contract of the century’
- France’s Naval Group is seeking compensation after Australia decided to go with nuclear-powered vessels from the US and Britain instead
- Australia had previously complained that the project was years late and well over budget
France’s Naval Group said Wednesday it will send a “detailed and calculated proposal” to Australia in the coming weeks of the costs it expects Canberra to pay for scrapping a massive contract to purchase French submarines.
Australia in 2016 agreed to buy 12 diesel-powered submarines built by Naval Group in a deal dubbed the “contract of the century” worth US$36.5 billion and later revalued at US$60 billion.
However last week Australia ditched the deal in favour of nuclear-powered submarines from the United States and Britain, in a secretly negotiated agreement that infuriated Paris and sparked a diplomatic row.
Naval Group CEO Pierre Eric Pommellet told France’s Le Figaro newspaper on Wednesday that a bill would be sent to Australia “in a few weeks”.
“Australia terminated the contract for convenience, which means that we are not at fault,” he said.