Last year, Canberra broke an agreement with the French industrialist Naval Group for the supply of conventional submarines, thus provoking an international diplomatic crisis.
Le Monde
Australia will be forced to pay up to 5.5 billion Australian dollars (3.7 billion euros), to end an agreement with France on the supply of submarines, in favor of The acquisition of American or British nuclear power models, admitted officials on Friday 1 April.
Last year, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, had denounced a contract with the French Naval Group Group for the acquisition of classical propulsion submarines (diesel), opting for nuclear propulsion alternatives in the part of a historical security agreement with Washington and London.
In questioned by a senator of the opposition, the defense officials revealed that the abandonment of the French agreement was accompanied by a high price. “Taxpayers will have to pay $ 5.5 billion for submarines that do not exist?”, Senator Penny Wong asked a hearing in Canberra. “The negotiated final settlement will be within the limits of this award,” replied the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Tony Dalton. It also specified that the exact amount was not yet known because the Naval Group negotiations were underway.
A program far from operational
The Minister of Finance, Simon Birmingham, defended the decision to abandon the French agreement as “necessary for the decades to come”. “It should be admitted that we knew that the consequences would be important,” said Birmingham.
m. Morrison had previously stated that the decision to opt for nuclear-propulsion submarines was motivated by the evolution of the dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region, where China is increasingly affirming its demands on almost all of The Southern China Sea.
This turnaround caused the anger of Paris, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, accusing the Australian leader to lied on the future of this contract of an initial value of $ 50 billion.
According to a study published in December by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the Aukus program will cost more than $ 80 billion and will take decades before being operational.
It should nevertheless, according to this same study, give Australia a significant advantage in its ability to dissuade aggression.