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France, on Friday, said it was recalling its ambassadors to the United States and Australia in protest of the Biden administration’s announcement that it had agreed to provide the country with nuclear-powered submarines before consulting French officials.
“At the request of the president of the republic, I have decided to immediately recall our two ambassadors to the United States and Australia to Paris for consultations,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement. “This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcements made … by Australia and the United States.”
The decision pulls Ambassador Philippe Étienne from the United States and Ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault from Australia. It follows the Biden administration’s sign-off on a $66 billion agreement for Australia to buy nuclear submarines from the U.S., effectively negating an earlier agreement for the country to buy 12 diesel-powered submarines from France. That agreement was made in 2016.
The sale comes as part of a larger strategic alliance between Australia, the United Kingdom and
American officials said they informed France of the agreement on Wednesday morning, just hours before it was publicly announced. Le Drian condemned it as “incomprehensible” in a Thursday interview with France’s Info Radio and compared President Joe Biden to his predecessor, President Donald Trump.
“We had established a relationship of trust with Australia, this trust has been betrayed,” Le Drian said. “It’s really a stab in the back. … This unilateral, sudden and unforeseeable decision very much recalls what Mr. Trump would do.”