France Recalls Ambassadors To US & Australia, Outraged Over Submarine Deal France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian late on Friday confirmed France has recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia in protest of the landmark pact between the US, UK and Australia announced Wednesday, which will see Washington assist Australia with nuclear-powered submarine development. Paris says the ambassadors were called back for "consultations" - also citing comments made by Australia and the US after the 'AUKUS' was announced. Le Drian earlier described Australia's scrapping of the €50 billion for France to deliver submarines, which had been negotiated since 2016, "a stab in the back." Via Reuters France had further called Australia's cancelation of the agreement a "unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision." The initial French sub contract with Australia, which had been first agreed to in 2016, was for France to build 12 conventionally powered submarines modelled on Barracuda nuclear-powered subs. Australia has never possessed nuclear-powered subs, and with this new US technology sharing partnership is expected to soon join an elite few number of powerful countries who operate nuclear submarines globally. BREAKING: Wow… France has decided to immediately recall its ambassadors to the U.S. & Australia to Paris for consultations following defence deal, AUKUS. It’s at request of Macron. French foreign ministry says deal represents “unacceptable behavior between allies and partners”. pic.twitter.com/H1qonSXpWv — Andrew Connell (@andrewiconnell) https://twitter.com/andrewiconnell/status/1438952343190507521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); "It’s really a stab in the back. We had established a relationship of trust with Australia, this trust has been betrayed," French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said Thursday just as Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the deal, which is widely seen as aimed at countering China's growing power in the Indo-Pacific. Friday's follow-up announcement informing countries of the recalled ambassadors cited "unacceptable behavior between allies and partners" and was ordered by French President Emmanuel Macron. Tyler Durden Fri, 09/17/2021 - 15:59