Posted on 09/18/2021 2:10:42 PM PDT by American Number 181269513
On his way out the door, France’s ambassador to Australia said he wished he could go back in time to avoid the mess that’s resulted from the surprise cancellation of a major submarine contract in favor of a deal with the U.S.
“This has been a huge mistake, a very, very bad handling of the partnership,” French envoy Jean-Pierre Thebault said Saturday as he left his residence in the capital of Canberra, the Associated Press reported.
France recalled Thebault and the French ambassador to the U.S. over the deal, which nixed a $66 billion contract from 2016 with the French Naval Group, partly owned by the French government, for eight-to-12 conventional submarines. Instead, Australia struck a deal with the U.S. for nuclear submarines as part of a new three-way pact with the U.S. called AUKUS.
“I would like to run into a time machine, if possible, and be in a situation where we don’t end up in such an incredible, clumsy, inadequate un-Australian situation,” Thebault said according to Reuters. “I’m very sad to be forced to leave, albeit there needs to be some reassessment to be made.”
Australia said it regretted the breakdown.
“Australia understands France’s deep disappointment with our decision, which was taken in accordance with our clear and communicated national security interests,” a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.
Thebault also noted no Australian officials have tried to contact him either today or yesterday, according to a tweet from Australian Broadcasting Corp. reporter Melissa Clarke.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Australian national security interests are un-Australian? Goodbye, Thebault.
Anyone who has ever owned a Peugeot knows the Australians made the right decision.
And I bet that their subs only go in reverse.
Australia makes their own wines.
Will there be a brie crisis?
"If the phone doesn't ring, it's me." I didn't know country music was popular in Australia.
My gut tells me the Biden Admin unnecessarily pissed on France.
If I had to pick just one ally, it would be France.
What every leftist-run country should know is that “one never trusts a leftist country”.
Kind of a fight club thing, perhaps.
I assume you mean that if the US had to piss on an ally, it shouldbe france thats pissed on?
If so, I agree
Lordy, France is probably the last one. Don’t let biden-hatred get you that far off.
I suspect that the Biden Syndicate will profit from this.
With the corrupt Biden administration in "office", I now no longer trust that this decision was made with the best interests of the US at heart.
I used to discount concerns about the "military industrial complex" as Eisenhower warned us about, but I now give the idea a lot more credibility than I used to do.
I also believe this corruption is not limited to just military procurement. With the CDC seemingly favoring vaccine manufacturers, and the FAA banning Fox News from flying drones and screwing with Space X while Bezos and Boeing complain, it looks to me as if there is a good possibility the entire federal government is a criminal enterprise that has been co-opted to do the bidding of large financial interests in this nation.
And i bet all french subs come with a complimentary white flag on top.
Maybe the aussies didnt like the flashing “we surrender” buttons placed all over the sub
I suspect the "big guy" was getting 10% somewhere along the line.
Yup—this was a quarrel among criminals.
Why?
Like Afghanistan this could have been handled better.......but Biden and his crew are clumsy clowns.
I think the syndicate goes way beyond just Biden. He's just the hood ornament for a large cabal of corruption.
Why buy conventional subs when you can buy nuclear subs. In fact, who even buys conventional subs?? Except France!!
If your goal was to build a tran-Afghanistan pipeline which would mainly benefit China, Biden handled this thing absolutely perfectly.
Taliban vows to guarantee safety of trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline
Australian nuclear subs can hunt down Chinese shipping for years if Australia is ever taken over by Chinese military force.
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