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LONDON – (AP) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted Britain’s relations with France are ‘ineradicable’, despite fury in Paris over a US-UK submarine deal- Australian.
A meeting between French Defense Minister Florence Parly and her British counterpart Ben Wallace has been postponed as the agreement disrupts relations between France and its main allies.
The two men were to meet and address a meeting organized this week by the Franco-British Council. Peter Ricketts, the council’s co-chair, told the Guardian on Monday that the meeting had been “postponed to a later date”.
The submarine deal, announced last week, will see Australia cancel a contract to purchase French diesel-electric submarines and instead acquire nuclear-powered ships from the United States. The United States, Australia and Britain say the deal strengthens their engagement in the Indo-Pacific region and has been widely seen as a move to counter an increasingly assertive China.
The French government seems to have been taken aback by the deal. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called it a “stab in the back”, and France recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra, a highly unusual move among the allies.
France, however, did not recall its envoy to London. French European Minister Clément Beaune said Britain, the third player in the “AUSUK” deal, was a “junior partner” and a vassal of the United States.
Johnson said relations between the UK and France were “very friendly” despite the diplomatic turmoil.
“Our love for France is ineradicable,” Johnson told reporters traveling with him to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. “AUKUS is by no means meant to be zero sum, it is not meant to be exclusive. It is not something that nobody has to worry about and especially not our French friends.
British officials highlighted the strong military ties between the UK and France, including joint operations in Mali and Estonia.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Monday that “all bilateral relations are going through periods of tension”.
“On a personal level, I have absolutely no doubt that ultimately our relationship with France will last,” he told the BBC. “But this (submarine deal) is about making sure that we have a really strong defense relationship with two very, very important defense partners.”
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