French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian yesterday announced that the country recalled its ambassadors to the US and Australia for consultation.
The decision came after Canberra’s decision to walk out of a deal to buy French submarines in favour of US vessels.
Le Drian said in a statement that the decision was made to immediately recall the two French ambassadors due to “the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made on 15 September by Australia and the United States”.
US President Joe Biden announced the new Australia-US-Britain defence alliance on Wednesday, extending US nuclear submarine technology to Australia as well as cyber defence, applied artificial intelligence, and undersea capabilities.
The move infuriated France, which lost a contract to supply conventional submarines to Australia that was worth 36.5 billion US dollars when signed in 2016.
“It’s really a stab in the back,” Le Drian said Thursday. “We had established a relationship of trust with Australia, this trust has been betrayed”.
France has also called off a gala at its ambassador’s house in Washington scheduled for Friday.
The event was supposed to celebrate the anniversary of a decisive naval battle in the American Revolution, in which France played a key role.
