France Calls Off Meeting With UK Defence Minister Amid Submarine Row: Report

rance has cancelled a gathering set for in the week between its Defence Minister Florence Parly and her British counterpart Ben Wallace, a source at her ministry told AFP Sunday.

The move comes after the us , Australia and therefore the UK sparked a full-blown diplomatic crisis with France by announcing a strategic partnership under which US nuclear submarines are going to be supplied to Australia, effectively sidelining France.

The “meeting planned for in the week in London… won’t happen thanks to the French cancelling”, said the ministry source.

Australia’s decision to shred a contract to shop for French submarines in favour of yank nuclear-powered vessels sparked outrage in Paris last week.

In an unprecedented move, French President Emmanuel Macron recalled France’s ambassadors to Canberra and Washington.

In London, a Ministry of Defence source said they might neither confirm nor deny the cancellation of the meeting, but added: “The UK remains in conversation with our French counterparts about the meetings.

We still have a robust and close-working defence partnership with France, as still be”> they continue to be trusted allies of the united kingdom and that we continue to work with France in many equipment and operational domains.”

The French contract to provide conventional submarines to Australia was worth Aus$50 billion ($36.5 billion, 31 billion euros) when signed in 2016.

French secretary of state Jean-Yves Le Drian has described the snub to France as a “stab within the back”.

The behaviour folks President Joe Biden’s administration had been like that of Donald Trump, whose sudden changes in policy long exasperated European allies, he added.

“There has been lying, duplicity, a serious breach of trust and contempt,” Le Drian told France 2 television on Saturday.

Britain, he dismissed because the “third wheel” within the US-Anglo-Australian partnership.