PARIS, Sept 19 (AFP/BBC): US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron will talk on the phone in the coming days amid high tension over a submarines contract, a French government spokesman said Sunday.
The announcement comes a day after France recalled its ambassadors to Washington and Canberra, unhappy over secret US-Australia negotiations that led to the cancellation of a multi-billion Australian order for French submarines.
"There will be an exchange on the phone in the coming days," spokesman Gabriel Attal told the BFM news channel, adding that the request for the converation had come from Biden.
Macron will ask the US president for "clarification" after the announcement of a US-Australian-British defence pact as part of which Canberra is to buy American nuclear-powered submarines, cancelling a huge contract for diesel-electric French vessels.
"We want explanations," Attal said, adding that the US had to answer for "what looks a lot like a major breach of trust".
Meanwhile, France's foreign minister has accused Australia and the US of lying over a new security pact that prompted Paris to recall its ambassadors.
Jean-Yves Le Drian also accused the countries of "duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt".
The pact, known as Aukus, thwarted a multibillion-dollar deal France had signed with Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had acted in the country's national interests.
He insisted the French government "would have had every reason to know that we had deep and grave concerns" that the $37bn (£27bn) deal signed in 2016 - for France to build 12 conventional submarines - "was not going to meet our strategic interests".
"Of course it's a matter of great disappointment to the French government, so I understand their disappointment," he said. "But at the same time, Australia like any sovereign nation must always take decisions that are in our sovereign national defence interest."
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
