Australia will pay France 555 million euros to break the contract to build submarines

– It is a fair and just agreement Albanese said at a press conference. He explained that the agreement came as a result of talks with the French President Emmanuel Macron He thanked him for his commitment to restoring good relations between Australia and France.

Australia in September last year terminated a €56 billion contract with France To build submarines and decided an alternative agreement with the United States and Great Britain. This resulted in an unprecedented move Diplomatic crisis between Canberra and Paris. On September 15 last year, it was also announced that a new trilateral defense agreement between Australia, the United States and Great Britain, known as AUKUS, had been concluded.

Two months after the contract was called off, the French ambassador to Australia commented that the Australian government’s actions had been a “stab in the back”. He confirmed it in his opinion The behavior of the government led by Scott Morrison was cunningAnd “cheating” on purpose.

He commented in November of last year: “The fraud was intentional.” Jean-Pierre Thibault, in a public reference to tensions in Franco-Australian relations for the first time. – The rate was much greater than the supply of submarines. It was a sovereign agreement, sealed by the transmission of top-secret data, so the way this matter is handled is a stab in the back – he added.

– Such things are not done between partners, let alone do things between friends – commented the diplomat.