Australia Trade Minister Looks Forward to Meeting With French Colleagues Amid Sub Deal Row

CC0 / / Sydney
Sydney
 - Sputnik International, 1920, 20.09.2021
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan said on Monday he was happy to meet with his French colleagues to discuss the reasons as to why Australia decided to pull away from the $66 billion contract with Paris on the purchase of French submarines and instead signed a deal with the United Kingdom and United States.
"[Governments] have to act in their own interest and that ultimately is what we've done and I look forward to be able to sit down and be able to explain that and clearly work through that, because France also understands the importance of taking decisions in their national interest," Tehan told ABC News.
Tehan stressed that France and Australia had many common interests.
"We share the same values, we fought defending those values side by side and we've worked for over a hundred years to build a significant partnership and I am sure that over time we will be able to continue that strong partnership and we will be able to put all this behind us," the minister added.
On 15 September, Australia quit a bilateral deal with France over the supply of 12 conventionally powered submarines and announced a defense partnership with the UK and the US, dubbed AUKUS, where Washington and London will supply Canberra with nuclear-propelled submarines.
Prior to leaving Canberra on Saturday, French ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault noted that Australia never denied reports that suggested AUKUS was in the making for 18 months and France was kept in the dark about Australia's intention to terminate the bilateral contract.
Meanwhile Australia's Prime Minister, Scott Morrison said that his country pulled out from the defence contract with France because it had "deep and grave" concerns about the capability of the French diesel-powered combat submarines of Barracuda class.
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