France’s ambassador to Australia described Saturday as a “huge mistake” Australia’s surprise cancellation of a major submarine contract in favour of a US deal, delivering a final protest as the envoy was recalled from the country in an unprecedented show of anger among the allies.
Jean-Pierre Thebault delivered his comments as he left his residence in the pandemic locked down capital of Canberra. “This has been a huge mistake, a very, very bad handling of the partnership,” Thebault said, explaining that the arms agreement between Paris and Canberra was supposed to be based “on trust, mutual understanding and sincerity.”
Paris recalled its ambassadors to Australia and the United States on Friday to protest a deal among the United States, Australia and Britain to supply Australia with a fleet of at least eight nuclear-power submarines.
Thebault flew out of Australia on a flight to Doha, Qatar, around 17 hours after the announcement from Paris.
The US deal scraps a 90 billion Australian dollar ($66 billion) contract with French majority state-owned Naval Group, signed in 2016, to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines.
